


The Midday Special

by InaRov



Category: One Direction (Band), zayn malik - Fandom
Genre: 1920s, Falling In Love, M/M, Magic, Vampires, Wizards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-25
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:02:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 25,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25058164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InaRov/pseuds/InaRov
Summary: During 1920, Harry Styles is the orthodox young man that all York visits in search of a cure for their pain, but nobody wants to be really close until Niall asks him for help to take care of his old friend, where he will face a beautiful young man who puts in doubt his capacity of staing away.~~~~~~~Or, Harry is the local sorcerer of York and Zayn is the newest Vampire of town.
Relationships: Niall Horan/Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik/Harry Styles
Kudos: 23





	1. When They Met

**Author's Note:**

> The story takes place in a kind of United Kingdom in terms of geography and some historical aspects that have been modified for the convenience of history (those will have a small asterisk); but that did not go through the first world war, the second or any other war; it has no technological advances beyond the telephone and the radio. In this fictional universe, homosexuality is not frowned upon.

Harry was undoubtedly the most orderly person anyone could ever meet; or at least that's what most of the people who visited him in his studio said.  
The innumerable jars were well arranged by size on the shelf with clear labels, or at least for the young man, since his handwriting had never been neat; a long table with various instruments, including various flasks in various shapes, distillation columns and 10 test tubes, all clean and the fire always on, even though the house was as cool as the summer breeze; there were long threads on the table that held bouquets of hanging herbs. In his room things were not very different; black clothes and boots with heels, a bed in the center, a stool with creams and a bookcase full of tired covers; the rest of the space was occupied by various plants high as the ceiling.

"Harry, you're not listening to me."

The boy paced back and forth while Harry busied himself in a mortar.

"You're adding too much agen ..."  
"Niall, for the last time; I've been doing this spell for three consecutive years, you should have a little more faith in me.”

Niall dropped next to the table, vibrating all the materials on it before going through the chair and stopping abruptly.

"Harry, Harry, hurry up."

The young chestnut walked back and forth again, this time with a much more worried face. He cursed quietly and watched as Harry added various plants and liquids to the mortar with tiny spoons that he kept on his side; some he ground in advance between his fingers, and others he dropped whole; Hary was so focused on his work that he didn't perceive when Niall dropped the delicate cameo to the ground. When the mixture was ready, the young wraith was translucent in front of him, frowning and pointing under the table.

"You shouldn't take it off before I ask you to, Niall, this is an incredibly old artifact, and written runes are a dead language that no witch or sorcerer speaks.”  
"It wouldn't have fallen if you hurried."  
"Well, if you had arrived earlier then ...”

Niall flinched horribly before turning completely invisible and leaving the room. Harry whirled around to look out the window. A young lady passed by as she looked curiously into the store, however, she gave the young wizard only a smile before continuing his way to the city center.  
She was without a doubt the most beautiful girl in the whole town, young Johansen, with her light brown hair falling in cascades over her shoulders and her dark eyes under her thin eyebrows.

"I am not very aware of the rumours of the people" Harry began to fill the cameo with the solution he had just prepared "but I am sure that Miss Johansen continues to reject all her suitors, and, furthermore, I think is not a coincidence that she continues to pass by the store on the same days that you come.”

Niall reappeared by the window; if anyone looked back, they would only perceive a stain on the glass, but Harry could see it well, so he took the cameo and placed it delicately inside the vest.

"I'm sorry I was so upset, Harry." He ruffled his hair with one hand, feeling everything become more tangible. "It just makes me incredibly nervous when I see Adelein is close to me. I do not know what she wants; one day she is nice to me and talks about anything, the next she is cold, and passes by to laugh at my face with her friends.”  
"Well ... I do not know much about relationships either. But what I do know is that soon you will be walking and breathing like any of us, you could even invite Miss Johansen out.”

Niall slowly turned to feel the air at every point of his now palpable body, with special emphasis on the hair. Harry wasn't quite sure, but he would have sworn that the ghost he was calling a friend was losing his hair, and that was twisting his intestines. What if he was wrong about the spell's amounts?

"Anyway ... it was good talking to you, old friend, but I must continue with the order of search spells."  
"Ah ... the work never ends for a good warlok, does it?"  
"We are sorcerers, Niall, sorcerers, not warlok; warloks are ...”  
"Those who practice black magic, I know, I know ... but I think the word matches more with your appearance. You know, all the ‘clothes and black heels’”.

Harry glanced down; the old worn black shirt and the black cloth pants that didn’t fit correctly any more. The spectre was right, perhaps the black clothes were too obvious, but if he stopped wearing them, how would his clients know where to go?  
When the wraith was gone, the young sorcerer begin working in the searching spell of a young bride who had lost the engagement ring that her fiancé had given her just a few days ago; then work on the flaming powders of Mr. Baxton, a gentle elderly man who lived near the center and could not light the fireplace on his own. But his favorite spell, which he had reserved for the end, was for Mrs. Pomegarden, the earl's wife, it was nothing more and nothing less than hair straightening powders for curling and straightening, in addition to a dowry of colouring powders: the shine of gold and red fire about to die. They were his favourites not only because it provides a different image to whoever that used it, but because capturing the essence of colours was wonderful, sometimes his fingers were stained with colours; tension powders were another story, sometimes the invisible hairs on his skin curled so much that they seemed to have an extra layer of skin, but he didn't mind as long as his long-sleeved clothing were available.  
The next morning, after breakfast, Harry take his bike to go cast the spells, first with the young bride who lived in the same street of his house, and who seemed more distressed than the day she had requested the spell.

“Don't worry, you just need to sprinkle the dust around you in a circle, think about what you have lost and the dust will line up in such a way that it will take you where the object might be.”

The young bride jumped of joy before closing the door in the nose of the sorcerer. Harry sighed heavily before continuing; the next stop was with Mr. Baxton, who took a good 20 minutes to answer the door and then remembering why the wizard had come in the first place, but when he did, he handed him a quarter copper coins and left the bag with powders by the fireplace.

"Thank you very much, Harry, it is difficult to spend cold nights since my hands are ... well, you know ..." the elder men raise his trembling hands “and my Anna is always very cold; so thank you Harry, thank you very much.”

The old man handed him a small box with a sky blue bow and he despised him not before making Harry say that he would return next month with more powders. Finally, for Mrs. Pomegarden, he went to the castle on the outskirts of York to hand the spella over to the sweet lady in person despite the harsh looks some workers gave him as he passed.

“The curling powder is the bottle number 20, the straightener is 21. The shine of gold is the black box and the red of the dying fire is the box ... well, red ...”  
“Oh honey ...”

It didn't take long for the chubby old woman to pick up the red box and plant herself in front of the mirror and spread the delicate powders on the black scalp. In an instant her hair become scorching fire, then passing a flare light as her hair fluttered. Mrs. Pomegarden kept sighing and breathing with joy.

"Harry, sweetheart, you’ve done it again." She moved from place to place, waving her hair to the astonished eyes of the guards, "but tell me, how long will the effect last? Because I need this type of hair for a long, long, long, long time.”  
"I'm afraid it will only last a couple of hours. Seven if my calculations are correct.”  
"Oh that's wonderful, but you should try to make it more durable, I would love to wear my hair like this on the beach next summer, I suppose by then you will have experienced enough, right?"  
"Perhaps, Mrs. Pome ...”  
“Oh don't call me that, it makes me feel terribly old and I'm barely 79 years old, sweetie. Anyway, Antonio, dear, pay little Harry.”

The earl himself, who had been in the hall all the while staring in amazement, handed him a small bag with seven silver and two gold coins.

“I can't accept this, it's too much ...”  
"Bah, silly little Harry, every time you come, the result is more than satisfactory.” The lady kept touching the flaming hair “Now, I need you to write down some things that I need.”

Harry rummaged through his black bag for a pink pencil and a tanned leather notebook.

"I'm ready, Mrs. Pomegarden ...”  
"It's Clair, little one, Clair." The lady stopped touching her hair, standing next to her husband. “There is a ruby necklace that I have, Antonio gave it to me, however, well ...”  
"Someone stole it," the earl raised his voice, "what do you need for a seeker spell?"

Harry looked at them for a moment before beginning to ask about jewelry that was in contact with the gem. By the time he was done with Mrs. Pomegarden, he had a pair of ruby earrings in his possession, as well as a short list of new colours that both Antonio and Clair wanted: bright green jade, litmus black onyx, and the sparkling blue of the sea; he would have to attend next week for tea. Harry threw the backpack into the yellow basket of the bicycle to go to the park to eat the small cake that Mr. Baxton had given him; his daughter Anna made the best lemon bread with lime bitumen, although the young wizard believed that there were better things to do than give desserts to complete strangers, but he was pleased with the exciting flavours.

Three days later, Niall returned to his study with a very folded and yellowed letter, as well as a smile so big that it occupied half of his face. As soon as Harry saw him enter, he carefully put the book he was reading on the table so that he could see the spectre completely. He looked radiant like the sun itself.

"I've got the best news, Harry, the best."

The wraith took a bench from the door and dragged it all the way until he was very close to the wizard.

“A good old friend comes to live in the city” Niall looked really happy “ I've known him since I started being a ghost, and Harry, he has stayed with me in all the bad times, and when he told me he needed a warlock, I mean, you ... well I mean, I told him that I knew someone good and he told me to go for him so I could come with you.”  
"Oh that's good, thanks for bringing clients, Niall."  
"It's the least I can do, after all, you never charge me for my spells. Anyway" Niall got up from the bench carelessly “I think I should go for him today in the afternoon and so I come with you at night, so I better walk. He bought the house at the end of town, the one surrounded by white roses.”

Niall left the bench beside the door and stole a green apple from the small table Harry had by the window. When he almost closed the door, the curly wizard got up very quickly.

"Niall, how is it that you've known someone for so long? Is it an old man you met as a baby?”  
"Ah, not at all," he hides his laugh behind the apple, "he's a vampire."

Harry stood by the door as he watched Niall make small leaps as he walked. He had never seen a vampire, had hardly heard of them, if it not have been for his mother's old book, he was certain that he would be terrified to meet the night demon that the ghost wanted to bring to his place .  
Harry walk to his room, to the large pale wood bookcase draped in plants; he remove a fern from the top shelf to take a light blue book whose cover read "The life and extinction of vampires, among other curiosities."  
He opened the book at random and leafed through it until he saw a portrait, a young woman of indescribable beauty covered in cotton fabrics or perhaps wool.

_“The Lady of Wallachia, the first recorded vampire in Eastern Europe, was listed within her species in 1451; she was tracked down within the vampiric community of Moldova until 1766, when she was stabbed to death after being accused of the deaths of more than 10,000 ruminants from the mountains. ”_

Harry frowned; the book had plenty of registered vampires, most of them dead at least a century ago. He turn to the first pages, where the text was being erased; reading the delicate handwriting made his eyes tired.

_"Vampires are often identified by their intolerance to the sun, since it burns their skin to the point of charring, as well as their inhuman beauty that they use as their main lure to hunt humans."_  
_“The food from which they subsist is the vitalis essentia that they obtain from living beings, mainly mammals; This can be blood in most cases, preferably red, and, in some exceptional cases, vampires live on the soul extracted from human beings who fall in love with them. ”_  
_"Studies have been carried out in the different communes when drinking the blood of certain crustaceans without survival success. The blood of the dead figures doom for them.”_

The young wizard was heavily suspicious and took the book into the living room; perhaps with a little lighter, his eyesight is not so good. He picked up a forgotten pair of glasses and started reading again.

_“They cannot enter a home without being previously invited by the owner of the place; they usually wear gloves to avoid contact with creatures that are not of their species. "_

The information went on and on, and Harry preferred to stop reading in order to see the beautiful faces that were drawn on the next 100 pages. Some were not pretty, but there was something cautious in sight.  
After a few hours without really paying attention to it, he leaves the book on the table by the window and re-prepare the potions to eliminate the pain in the back and relieve tired eyes. He take a bunch of hanging herbs and put them in various flasks with pure water to boil for a while before Harry can use them.  
Harry add drying powders to the water and take the formed crystals to mix them with alcohol and others with water. He placed them in small jars. To many others he add thick powders and put the putty in larger jars. When he was done, he began to draw the labels with elegant handwriting to put them on the hoarder of the small store, which was actually the front of his study or entrance to his house, a beautiful window.  
By the time the night entered the streets of York, Harry had completely forgotten about Niall and his promise to return, so he retired to sleep early, and when he was lying in bed in comfortable reverie, someone knocked on the door desperately  
“I always tell everyone that they never knock on the door after 8 and before 7, it's my free time, my special time, Harry's time. Stupid York people."  
He slammed the door open and found Niall smiling on the threshold; He moved a bit so the spectre can pass, but before he could avoid it, he saw a tall figure pass just behind his friend.

"I'm sorry I woke you up, but I told you I'd be back at night."  
"I wasn't sleeping." Harry frowned to hide the swelling in his eyes and fell silent to keep them from hearing the hoarseness in his voice.  
"Harry, no ... ah forget it, he's my friend, Zayn."

At that moment Harry turned to see the person next to the nightstand; the man was looking at the book he had forgotten. Suddenly his face feel really hot, not only was the vampire reading the book that spoke of his species, but his face looked like the one of a dead man: he did not smile, he did not speak, his eyes hardly blinked, his skin was very pale, and above all, it was beautiful.  
Dark skin, ghostly eyes the colour of acorns, black hair that curled over his cheekbones, everything involve in elegant clothe, all in dark tones without succouring black more than a pair of delicate fabric gloves. The young man stretched out his hand toward the sorcerer.

“I prefer Javadd, Zayn is for, let's say, closer people.”

Harry stared at him in amazement an instant before the young man dropped his hand and frowned even more, turned to Niall and spoke in Gaelic roughly; the wraith raised his arms and shook his head before turning to the curly one.

"Harry, don't be rude."

"I ... I'm sorry," he shrugged, trying to cover most of his body with his arms. "It's just that you are, are...” Harry low voice.  
“Very?”

The disinterested voice, the eyebrows up, and the fact that he was sniffing around, didn't help Harry at all. Niall seemed very nervous, like someone about to lose his job.  
With barely a whisper, Harry said:

"Attractive ..." the vampire sighed heavily.  
"Niall, I think this was a bad idea."

Without saying more, he turned towards the door, but contrary to leaving, wandered through the shelves of the young sorcerer .

"I hope I can buy certain herbs, pure water, and ointments, as long as you agree to it and are in your inventory, of course."

He turned to see the young sorcerer once more, looking at him from above, since, despite being shorter, his straight bearing seemed to give him at least half a meter of height. Niall sighed so heavily that the two outsiders immediately turned around.

“Zayn, you couldn't make the potion even if someone were targeting you with silver bullets.”  
"But the bullets ..." the dark-haired man remained in mid-sentence, lowering his head when the ghost spoke again.  
"And Harry, you've shown rudeness after rudeness; first you receive us in your pyjamas, you leave a frankly racist book on your table so that we all know that you are aware of what is happening” Harry's cheeks were red hot. “You do not know how to control your primary instincts and you make me feel bad; I did nothing but speak wonders of you. And Zayn, stop being so heavy, it is the first time in life that this poor warlock meets a vampire, so take the stake out of your butt. More than 70 years ago you stopped using Javadd to introduce yourself.”

They both looked at the spectrum in shame. Niall's eyes widened, pointing at each other; Harry swallowed what was left of his pride and grief to stretch out his hand.

"My name is Harry, incredibly pleased. And I am not a warlock; I am a sorcerer.”

Zayn, somewhat suspicious, gave a loud snort before taking the sorcerer's hand.

"Zayn Malik." Niall's eyes widened further, and the vampire sighed even more. “I require a potion, and you are the only sorcerer I have seen in all of York; I would appreciate it if you could prepare it for me, no matter the cost.”

From his sack he took a gleaming sheet of paper and held it out to Harry. In neat handwriting lay a recipe:

"Ingredients:  
Juice from beta vulgaris root, stinging nettle, blood-filled leeches, sage rosmarinus, powder from a dead star, and an item of sentimental value.   
> In a half-gallon cauldron, pour pure water to cover 3/4; put it on blue fire. Juice of beta vulgaris root is squeezed directly into the cauldron and whole leeches are added immediately; gradually include the stinging nettle leaves clockwise. Wait to bubble and pour the entire sentimental object; mix counter clockwise and allow to cool. Before it freezes, add the star powder.”

"What kind of potion is this?"  
"You don't need to know that; can you prepare it yes or no?"  
"I can prepare it, but I need to know what kind of magic it is; I don't practice the black trend.”  
"It is not black magic, it is ... a potion that I will require every so often, can you prepare it?"

Harry looked at the paper once more; he had never used leeches before, but he vaguely remembered that his mother and grandmother used to use them as home remedies for some ills and then used them for their potions. He looked back at the vampire, but the intense gaze churned his stomach.

"Yes, I can prepare it, but I need time. I do not have powder from a dead star and I need to find an item of sentimental value that ...”  
"Don't use anything of yours."  
"Okay ... but I still need to find it."  
“Well. I will be back in seven days for the potion. In the meantime, I need a burn ointment.”  
“For what kind of burns?”

Harry turned to a shelf by the wraith, who was completely uninterested in stirring the hanging herbs. Harry rummage through the jars for fire burns, which the women and city cooks used, then he felt the vampire's cold gloved hand on his bare skin; Zayn showed a glimpse of his chest showing a piece of charred skin.

"Oh ... that's it. Is it a sunburn?" The vampire nodded. “Well, I don't think I have anything that powerful to take it off right now, but” Harry search the top of the shelf until he pick up a tiny jar “my mother used to give this to a vampires, or at least that's what she told me.”

He removed the label from the lid, where the preparation rest, and opened it to the vampire who immediately covered his nose. After inspecting it, Zayn took a bit to put it on his skin, almost instantly his face reflected relief.

"How much do you want for this?"  
"Umnnh, I don't know. Five copper coins?"  
"I'll give you 25, and when I come back, make another jar, bigger, please."

Zayn gave him the money and elegantly withdrew from his home, being swallowed by the dark. Niall, for his part, had fallen asleep in that uncomfortable chair by the window.  
How long had they been talking?

For the next two days, Harry searched the town for a valuable object, finding it with a girl who changed her little wool toy in exchange for a kiss on the cheek; for the dead star he had to travel for a whole day to the valley, where some lost stars found death in the pond. That night, under the cloak of moonlight, he made the potion that resulted in a reddish or green pitch, depending on the light under which it was viewed, with an unpleasant odor.  
Four days had passed when he returned to the castle to return Mrs. Pomegarden's borrowed objects and search powders along with the extravagate colouring powders. That woman was lucky that he had onyx among his things.  
As there was not much movement in York that day, the young sorcerer arrived early, so they made him wait in the library; there were so many books that it hurt to turn his head to try to catch them all, so he started walking between the shelves.

"Oh Harry, honey, I thought you would come later, today is an inconvenient day, but don't get me wrong, I like that you're here."  
"It's alright, Clair, I had free time and I already had your spells ready, just right here.”

Harry held up a small bag containing everything while looking at a black Romanian book on the woman's shoulder; the spine was worn off and from the title just remains a vestige of golden letters, from where he caught the word "vampire". Mrs. Pomegarden cleared her throat, it was obvious she had been talking while he was distracted.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?"  
“Sweety, if you want the book, take it, Antonio doesn't even stop by unless it's to hide from me. But now tell me how I use the finder spell?”

Harry took the small bag and patiently explained that she would have to spray the powders over an area that reminded her of the ruby. When he finished, Harry realized that Mrs. Pomegarden was walking toward him; piking up the black book and flipped through it a moment before handing it to the young sorcerer.

“Vampires? I didn't think you were the type that cares about them, and they died centuries ago anyway, right? With all those laws and nonsense they did to…” The lady was silent when she saw Harry; she put the book back on the shelf. “It's not something you should be worried about, sweetheart, but if you have an interest in them, I think it would be better for you to read the version in your own language.”

Mrs. Pomegarden picked up a much newer, slimmer tome with the title "Common Vampire Spells." It was a typewriter, handmade book that looked awkwardly bound.

“There are simple things, most of the book are illustrations of the plants you need and that; It is all a ritual for what it seems, will you try one?”  
"It is merely an educational purpose, Clair."  
"Okay, either way, I don't think you have the ability to do most of them. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to take the two o'clock train to Manchester.”

The old lady leave a sweet kiss on his cheek, and she left the library; as he walked toward the exit, he pretended to read the poor pages that matched Mrs. Pomegarden's description. There were many drawings of cauldrons, flasks, plants, suns and moons in different positions, and, just in the last three leaves came two spells: "Sleep of the dead in life" and "The sun touches the undead". He read the list of ingredients and the easiest of them was the second one, it only required a live oyster and a ring to place the pearl, preferably in stained gold.  
Harry walk through the market until find the shiniest oyster they have in the fish tanks, trying to pick the one that had patched tissue on the hard part. The next stop was with the blacksmith, whom the sorcerer commissioned a mixed copper and gold ring, in the shape of a rose, with a hole large enough to have a pearl inside it; the man, after making him wait for two hours, gave him a thin, pink ring.

"This is the first time someone has asked me for that combination of metals, so I didn't expect that colour."

Harry paid him to go home later, he would have to read the spell before performing it; he needed to wait for the moon to have a halo of light, preferably provided by nature, otherwise he would have to invoke it; he had to evoke all his vital energy in the pearl so that it absorbed the light while repeating "lumina mortilo".   
So Harry listen the radio * the rest of the day waiting for some weather forecast that would make the moon part possible, but it seemed to be just another dry night of the month, but luckily there would be a full moon that night.  
When night fell, he slipped onto the balcony of his second-floor room, lit six candles, two white in front, three gold around him, and one black in front of him. He took the oyster in his hands praying to any deity that the oyster had a pearl inside. Harry invoke the halo of light on the full moon; he wait at midnight and opened the mollusc . He put all his magical energy into searching the slimy contents until he found a tiny pearl that shone like the sun at the first contact with air; it seemed to steal all the light for a moment, swallowing the candles flame, then turning a deep, dull black. The young sorcerer sighed heavily; his body felt heavy and the air inside him felt thick, as if he had swallowed a lot ofwater.  
With heavy movements he crawled to his bed; taking the ring to place the pearl in the center, a simple finger movement and the pink metal embrace the black object. Without noticing more, Harry close his eyes.


	2. The dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some historical events have been altered for the convenience of history as well as some technologies.

After a pleasant moment of dreamless sleep, someone knocked on Harry’s door slowly and loudly, constant, repeatedly. He blinks and yawn reluctantly until he found himself in front of the door, he had an atrocious hunger that made his abdomen hurt. Zayn was straight in front of him, his face calm and all his body covered by soft, thin clothes that did not match his hands wearing hunting gloves.

"Good night, Harry, may I come in?”

The sorcerer stared at him for a moment before nodding awkwardly and stepped aside.

"I'm sorry I took a while to come; I seem to have more unresolved issues than I anticipated, and, well, I also wanted to apologize for the other night, I was very rude and it wasn't my intention. It's just that the last sorcerer I had contact with... well, let's just say it wasn't a good idea to associate with him.”

"You were here three nights ago; I have not yet prepared the...”

"It's been nine nights since we last met.”

"But I did see you just on Sunday...”

"Yes, and it's Tuesday; nine nights after the last time are you all right?”

Harry suddenly felt a weight fall on his shoulders; he looks back at his attractive guest and denied.

Harry breathe slowly several times and then offer Zayn a seat by the workbench, handing him the jar with the feeding potion, so he can research in the kitchen for some bread.

"I know vampires don't eat food, human food, but, well, I'm starving, and I don't want to be rude.”

Harry spread a slice to Zayn before eating a large piece himself; it tasted like glory, and he would have done it more if it weren't for the fact that the vampire gave the stinky jar a long drink. He sigh relaxed before licking his lips and cutting a small portion of the bread Harry had offered him; for the first time he saw him smile, which should be to take care, for the sorcerer understood why the beauty of the creature in front of him was so dangerous.

"It's perfect, Harry, thank you very much.”

"But you... you just drank it, and it smells disgusting... smells like, smells like...”

"Like a corpse?” Zayn laughed before eating another piece of bread and having a new drink. “I don't know who invented this, or why it smells so bad, but it satiates the hunger and satisfies my needs.”

Zayn plugged the jar before storing it in a leather bag that hung on his side, from which he pulled out a jingling bag at the same time.

"Sorcerers usually charge two silver coins for the option, but I guess you can charge me more; for the hassle of going for the star and all that.”

"No, that's, that's more than enough...," he stood wondering for a moment before he suddenly got up. “Stay here, don't move, not an inch, not even breathe.”

The vampire laughed before getting up and following the erratic sorcerer to the foot of the stairs, where he stopped as Harry climbed the steps in two to reach his room, from where he took the ring already forgotten on the floor, watching it carefully before turning to his mirror; he was misaligned from the hair to the wrinkled clothes, so Harry changed quickly, black pants, black shirt, and brushed her hair carelessly the best he can.

When he returned to his studio, he saw Zayn prowling his books before turning over to see Harry standing still, again without the smile.

"I didn't think you were Orthodox.”

"Excuse me?”

"You know, the whole ‘black clothes, black shoes, black cat’ thing.”

"I don't have a black cat...”

“Of course... umnh, may I know why you left so suddenly?”

"Yes, I went for this," he raised the ring to the vampire's eyes. “I read about this the other day in a book of...”

"How did you get it?” Zayn seemed suspicious of the ring, almost afraid to touch it.

"Oh, I did it... like four nights apparently.”

Zayn opened his eyes wide before taking the ring with much caution. With a calm voice he said:

"You could have died... Harry... This, you know what this is?” His countenance was immutable, but his bright eyes were accumulating water.

"Jewelry? I don't know, the book said it was a spell for the sun to touch the undead... although there was something else described as a number of the dead in life...”

"Harry, this, this ring, could have killed you, the spell, didn't you know?” the sorcerer denied “what were you going to do with it?”

"Well, give it to you, if it's useful to you, of course, if not, well... I think it's a very nice ring and I could sell it; I just need to know what it does.”

Zayn smiled sadly before returning the ring to Harry.

"Don't you want it?”

"Of course I want it, but... it is too valuable; it is so that a vampire can walk during the day without getting burned and...”

"Then take it, it's yours. Think of it as, as a welcome gift to York, and so I don't have to make you the ointment for the burns anymore. You can also count it as apologies for being so rude the other night.”

The vampire smiled again before the ring was placed in his finger. It was perfect for the ring finger on his left hand; He took all the coins from his purse and offered them to Harry; there were at least 30 silver coins and 20 gold coins.

"I can't take it, it's too much.”

"But...”

"No, no, that's fine, really," the heaviness fell on his eyelids again. “Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go back to sleep.”

Zayn looked at him in every little move he made; from his clumsy hands taking what was left of the loaf of bread to his feet crawling on the wood to reach the foot of the stairs. When Harry halfway, he turned to watch the vampire give him one last smile before making a hand with his head and leaving.

The next morning, Harry realized that he had actually slept for four days in a row, as the food keep in his house had been spoiled, apparently by a heat wave that struck York during his second day of sleep; the second clue was the stench that fired when he raised his arms; the last was the amount of urine he evacuated when he awoke the second time, which had kept him in the toilet for 10 minutes waiting for remain to come out. As if that were not enough, there were several cards resting on the floor of the entrance; apparently he had more orders for tensioning and colorful hair powders since Mrs. Pomegarden had been using them in meetings with her friends in Manchester, some others from Doncaster, Leeds and Oxford, but Harry needed several items before he could star whit the extravagant colors: "the blue of the stars", "rose of sugar cottons", "bright black", "cherry red" and the order went on and on, so when Harry found himself in the market to buy things, he was very surprised when he began to find people who commented that had missed the sorcerer's local, and many began to ask for moments of the day so that they could go with him for their remedies. He had been in less than twenty minutes there and his little notebook was full of dates about the hours of the day that various people would come.

The conversation between couple of girls, who couldn’t be over 16, stop him in the middle of his shopping, to the lavender in my hands long forgotten in his bag.

"Isn't that Mr. Malik? The one from Leeds? They say he bought the house of white roses. God, he's the most beautiful, isn’t he?”

"Of course they all gossip, he’s so handsome, but people didn't say he's a vampire?”

"Vampires don't walk in the day, they'd die in the sun; Besides, they've been extinct a long time ago, haven't they?”

The girls' gossip faded when Harry’s gaze rested on Zayn; had his hair in messy curls, though it gave him an even more beautiful air, with that stately bearing that characterized him, and in daylight it seemed that his eyes did not shine as spectrally as at night.

Harry could see that in his basket was only red food: apples, cherries, strawberries, beetle and even a small pumpkin stained with red. Harry sigh heavily before walking to meet him.

"Hello Zayn.”

The vampire turned with an annoying look, but as soon as he saw that it was the sorcerer, his whole body relaxed and gave him a beautiful half-sided smile.

"Harry, good morning, how are you?”

"Very good. Thank you for asking.”

They stared for a moment before the vampire laughed harmoniously.

"Do you still have purchases to do?”

"A few; I need cotton candy for a spell, but there's no one around here to sell it.”

"That's easy, they sell it near the center” Zayn suspiciously turn everywhere, realizing that people were watching them “do I accompany you?”

"Of course.”

They walked together silently along a stony path, all hoping that the influx of people would decrease, and although the people on the street were less, many snoopers poked their noses from the windows in the hope of seeing York’s new resident, as it was only two weeks ago that the vampire arrived in the small town, long enough to spread rumors about his person; Harry had heard a variety of stories, from which they said he was a Lord banished from the highlands for practicing black magic because he would only go out at night in the pantheon to leave white roses to an unmarked tomb; the one who said that his wife had died and he had fled with his fortune instead of keeping the baby who, practically said, had been born with a pig's tail and a member both feminine and male to his credit. Many other people, the younger ones, commented that their job consisted of companying wealthy women from Manchester and London when their husbands were gone, and because he were supposedly so good, some great lady had bought her the house, and, during the night, he would leave her abode to meet that lady to thank her for the favor. A rumor, the most ridiculous one according to Harry, was that that beautiful man will make anyone fell in love with the sole reason of devouring their liver.

The young sorcerer was pulled from his dream halfway when the vampire cleared his throat to get his attention; hadn't noticed, but they were walking in the sun and the sweat was starting to drain down his back.

“What kind of spell does cotton candy need? I've never heard of anything like this in all my years of life.”

"Oh, well, it's for dry powdering; Women like their hair to look a lot of colors.”

"I see, do you usually do a lot of aesthetic magic?” Harry shrugged.

"It's what I'm most asked for, that and some ointments for muscle and bone aches.”

Zayn meditated for a moment before suddenly stopping and seeing Harry directly, a look so intense that he felt his soul pierced.

"Have you ever made potions grow bones?” Harry denied, “have you invoked spirits? Conjured fire or water?” denied again. “Did you make potions of transfiguration or elixir of truth, life or death?”

Harry was overwhelmed, he had never heard of those things.

“I summon a ring of light on the moon...”

"I see, but have you summoned light in a dark place? Maybe you've brought a painting to life outside the canvas? Have you done sortileges to intervene in a joust? Enchantments to heal a wound? Bring someone to life?”

"That's black magic...”

"Potions of love or lust? Enchantments for people to think what you want? Maybe telekinesis...”

Harry had his eyes watered, he breathe so much that his chest hurt a little, so he used his full height to look derogatorily at the vampire.

"I only know how to make potions and spells for beauty and ease the pain, okay?” the vampire blinks fast.

"Harry, I didn't mean to...”

"Okay, I think I can keep walking just from here...”

As soon as the sorcerer turned around, his heeled ankle boots stumbled so he fall on the vampire's chest awkwardly. While Harry was soaking his cheeks with tears, Zayn held him tight until the curly one was able to stand without shaking.

"Are you all right?” Zayn spoke very, very soft, too close.

"Yes, I'm fine, thank you for not letting me fall...”

Harry felt the shame accumulated in his stomach as he tightened the vampire's arms tightly while Zayn's hands keep strong on his hip; he could feel all the brunette's elegance in the embracement, as Zayb looked at him without judging him but still, the doubt in his eyes, and all that magic he had not heard of was eating his gaze in a tear-filled blur that he could not hold for long, except when the vampire brought him closer to his body, so protectively.

"I know that I am not a good sorcerer, that I only know how to make silly spells about beauty and simple pains, I do not know how to do hundreds of things that I suppose I must know and... I do not know...”

Harry shed several tears before the vampire held him in his arms completely, letting him cry over him as long as he keep crying; he also felt the vampire's leisurely breathing, whose nose he found buried in his curls, giving him a strange sense of calm. It seemed hours in what he was between the strong arms, and Harry even got to feel the smell of soap and the cologne of the vampire, but nothing else.

"Don't expect to smell too much; supposed that I don't dismiss any scents.”

"That must be good; you won't stink after a hot day.”

They both laughed before the young sorcerer completely took off, wiping away tears with a handkerchief that Zayn had stretched out to him with chivalry.

"God, I'm sorry I put you through that; I don't know what happened.”

"It's all right, Harry, are you feeling better?”

Suddenly, he could feel the eyes of all the inhabitants of the street on his neck, so he straightened himself completely. Clearing his throat and turning away from the vampire completely, though his heart turned a small turn when he saw the disappointment in the eyes of Zayn as had regained the spectral glow.

"I'm better off, thank you, but I think I should hurry to buy cotton candy; some girls downtown are going to my house to ask me for a spell or something.”

"Oh, it's okay.”

Harry dedicate one last smile before he kept walking, although He can't take more than ten steps when he felt silk cloth on his wrist.

"I wanted to thank you, for the ring," Zayn raised his hand so Harry could see the pearl that seemed to swallow the light. “You've been a great help, so I hope you can join me for dinner tonight.”

"Tonight?” Harry didn't know if the constant blush was a side effect of vampire nature. “Well, I don't know what time I finish taking care of people, would you mind coming to my house? So, I could make you some dinner while I take care of whoever's there.”

"That's completely contrary to what I just proposed to you," Harry felt the red burn on his cheeks once again. “But as long as I make dinner, I guess it didn't matter much where I am.”

"Perfect. Can you make it at 8?

Zayn nodded before turning around and returning down the road they had traveled, while Harry let out a great sigh that seemed to have been stuck in his chest for quite some time.

When he got home, a couple of girls from the center were waiting by his door, laughing as they waved their eyelashes in his direction and sang in unison a "Hello Harry"; they seemed very entertaining touching their hair as he opened the door for them to come in like lightning to sit on his coffee table next to the window. They needed nothing but a cream for acne, so Harry cut flowers of marigold and wheat to place in a small cauldron before going for the jar of cream with mint so that the girls could get rid of their pimples, although after paying the 2 copper coins for each jar, both girls laughed loudly before kissing him on the cheeks , at the same time, and then run away.

The next appointment would be an hour later, so he went in search of his mother's vampire book; Harry flip through the first few pages a couple of times before he finds what he was looking for.

"One way to avoid them is by using grounded garlic or using silver on the body to scare them away. If one is not sure of being besieged by a creature of the night, they are usually identified by their lack of odor and eyes of spectral brightness; it is of paramount importance to avoid any kind of sensation that causes an increase in heart rate, or the vampire might be encouraged to eat from his person.

When they prepare to hunt some prey, they are extraordinary predators that camouflage in the environment, as they can remain motionless for a long time, without the apparent need to blink, waiting for the precise moment to attack."

Harry decided to stop reading when someone knocked on the door, this time considering leaving the book well hidden in his room.

He couldn't believe that someone as elegant and charming as Zayn could drop into the desire to drink blood, even imagining Zayn cover of blood seemed completely out of place to him. Harry felt too many things he shouldn't have when he thought of the vampire, from the annoying blushing that seemed not to disappear every time he was close to the uncomfortable feeling that those eyes penetrated into his chest to his heart, which made him speculate whether at some point he would rip his heart out to drink the blood directly from him , like a kind of fetish that could have the brunette.

With each time spending the hours, Harry discovered that his moment of weakness in the face of the vampire had not been closely unnoticed, as some of his clients, the most nosy ones, had dared to ask if he was in a relationship with the new resident of York, while others, more discreet, floated out Zayn's theme in the city for him to follow the thread of conversation. He hear each and every one of them talking about the rumors surrounding the vampire as he tried to refuse to know anything beyond that he had a burn cream because he had had a fictitious accident in the kitchen overnight a week ago, so Zayn had gone to Harry’s home/study at such dark time of the day. When asked why he had been with him in the morning, which had been his first public appearance by day, Harry shrugged saying he probably had a lot to order in his new home and matters to attend to before he could leave.

When he received Niall's call he expected many things from the spectrum, except that he yelled at him for dragging Zayn out of his house during the day, as the rumor that had reached the specter was that Harry went with love potions to attract the new resident.

"I met him at the market in the morning when I went to get food and some spell materials. And, well, he said he was coming to dinner tonight.”

Harry hear the little, sharp cry of Niall before removing the earpiece of the phone from his ear, and then listen patiently to the things he should avoid if he wanted Zayn to lean towards him the way he supposed to bow, and yes, perhaps Harry should not have told his friend about the traditions of witches when he met him , but something in his heart made him feel good every time Niall told him that the vampire was a big match in the absence of any other suitor.

When he was caring for a man for hip discomfort, the door rang. it was 8 o'clock, so Harry got up suddenly to open the door to the vampire, who asked permission to come with a huge basket he was carrying aside; Harry tell Zayn where the kitchen was so he could do what he had to do and the said _"get_ _comfortable while I'm done."_

The man, a complete snooper, gets up from his seat so he could see the brunette better, so the sorcerer rushed to prepare his potion and get ride of him from his home; he was sure that the next day the rumors would run all over York without him being able to do much.

Zayn, when Harry paid attention again, was pulling out a pot of fod with a strong curry smell, as he already had two other saucepans outside that flooded his home with strong smells.

"I didn't think you were that punctual; I expected you to arrive at least after Mr. Park had left.”

"I hope I didn't cause any discomfort.”

"Not at all..." Harry bring his face to a saucepan with rice so he can smell as much as possible. “This smells delicious, but would you mind eating on the second floor?”

The vampire, so polite, put everything back inside the basket to ask Harry for directions to the small balcony of his room, which was covered by a tree, which would hide them from the curious glances of his neighbors while still seeing the beautiful starry sky.

Harry had tried to make the table clean and presentable; the little vase of yellow roses was perfectly located in the center. He turned the glasses resting on the wood and poured some water, although he later felt very awkward to remember who he was supposed to have diner with.

Zayn took out the saucepans again, accommodating them in the center and then putting plates and cutlery closely on the round table; he had even brought a solitary white rose.

"Gods, Zayn, this is... wow...”

"I'm glad your eyes like it, but you should wait for your mouth to taste it; I haven't cooked anything in a long time, so I wouldn't have my hopes too high if I were you.”

"My nose is having a little rejoicing, so I guess my mouth shouldn't be far from equal or greater pleasure. What kind of food is it?

"This," Zayn point out the dish with rice and meat, "is called biryani, the soup," then he point to a small container of chickpeas “this is channa chaat," so he pass the pot with potatoes “the main course, aloo keema, and dessert, kheer,"put a deep plate of thick milk on the table.”

"Zayn, this is enough to feed an army.”

"Yes, I suppose old ways take root and math in the kitchen is not my forte.”

When Harry started eating, he couldn't stop trying a little bit of everything every so often, always trying to keep his mouth shut as he watched Zayn drink from his tar before eating a small bite of every thing; Harry was sure he ate with him out of sheer courtesy.

"Where did you learn to cook all this?”

"At home, or where I used to live.”

"I suppose it wasn't within the United Kingdom? I'm sure I'd hear someone talk about this treat when all we seem to eat is fish and potatoes; although it's a little spicier than I thought.”

"From Pakistan. That's where I'm from, or at least that's where I was born.”

Harry wiped his mouth with a pink cloth napkin on his lap before standing very straight and smiling broadly at the vampire.

"I will tell you three great secrets of mine, but in return, you must tell me yours; three for his post, an equivalent exchange.”

Zayn laughs loudly before wiping his mouth and mimicking all of his host's movement.

"Okay, what do you want to know?”

"No, no, I'll tell you a secret and you tell me one of yours.”

The vampire smiled again and made a hand for the sorcerer to continue that game.

"My family left me in York when I was 14 to move to France because my mother said all the magic of her body had given to my sister, Gemma, and not me," Zayn twisted his mouth with a look of pity. “Don't look at me like that, it's your turn.”

"Very good; I was a slave in the British Raj of India during 1720.  *”

"Oh, I didn't expect that... so you're 250 years old?”

"That's not the purpose of the game, Harry, and your math is terrible. Your turn.”

"Pff, okay, uh, let's see," Harry scratches his chin for a moment before jumping into his chair. “The day I met Niall was the first time I had talked to someone outside my family. He used to live in this house and helped me scare off the previous owners to sell me the house very cheaply.”

"I thought this would be a fun, non-depressive game...," Zayn sigh deeply. “I lived in Leeds for the last 50 years, until I heard Niall was here and convinced me to come because here lives an extraordinary magician, although of course, he forgets to mention the appeal.”

Harry felt his cheeks burn again, which he tries to hide behind the glass of water. When he got rid of the knot in his throat, he spoke again.

"I don't think I'm an extraordinary magician, honestly.”

"No, uh, that's not a secret, you need one. Then we can discuss your magic.”

"It is well, then, you are the first vampire I see in my life; if it hadn't been because I knew you, I'd still believe that your species was a myth invented some time ago by the man who wrote Dracula.”

"Touché; Well, just under a hundred years ago I didn't see a magician, sorcerer or whatever they like to call each other until I met you the other night, and even then I thought I was delirious when I walked into your stay and saw all those hanging herbs.”

Harry sigh heavily as he watched the vampire; had a smile hung over his face steadily and somewhat sarcastically.

"Maybe if you went to France, you'd find more practitioners of magic.”

"I'm still in touch with, let’s say, people around the world, and none of them know any powerful sorcerer.”

"I just told you that my mother, grandmother and sister left me in York because...”

"You're not a practitioner of mediocre magic, Harry, even if I made you believe that this morning, witch I'm sorry for. This” he took off his ring for a moment to give it to him “is the test itself; it would have managed to kill a lot of sorcerers, but you survivor.”

"It was just a silly spell so you could walk in the sun.”

"No, no, no; Harry, this ring represents a lot of things. For my species it meant a leap to a better life, for your species, figure death, almost extinction.”

"But it was just...”

"Harry, you slept for four days in a row after you did, what did you feel when the pearl, turn black?”

"I felt tired, as if I had breathed very dense air, maybe water, I don't know, but I'm fine, I just slept more than I expected.”

Zayn extended his gloved hand to take his, but stopped just inches from Harry's fingers, with his fingers shaking before the curly took them.

“The spell was done by wizards of Romania in 1780; it cost all of them their lives, but when the vampires discovered what the ring was capable of, they took many prisoners and forced them to produce more, each of them died, if they did not die making the first ring, they died making the second or third, sometimes without having success at all, and they were powerful sorcerers, versed in different kinds of magic, but even after so many deaths only a few vampires were fortunate to possess one, and 80 years ago the remaining rings were destroyed by the vampires themselves in stupid attempts to steal them. Harry, you are a practitioner of extraordinary magic; you summoned a halo of light on the moon, for all the saints, after which you had enough energy to do this magic, you survived the embrace of death that surrounded you.”

Harry was overwhelmed, his cheeks burned too hard and his chest feel somehow extremely big and tight.

Zayn, for his part, paid attention to the small candle resting in the center of the table as the sorcerer fix his blush. He hears heavy sighs until Harry's thick voice sounded again on the table.

"We should go in for a cup of tea; I leave things ready early... since Niall called me in the afternoon and said...”

"I hope he didn't say anything wrong.”

"No, no, he said things about being a good host to fall on your good side or something? Don't pay much attention," he held his breath for a second, waiting for the vampire to believe his lie. “Either way, we should put all this down before the birds come to make a mess.”

Both began to collect the almost empty plates and saucepans, because despite the curly protest, most of the food had disappeared. However, contrary to his words, Harry took some of the rice to leave on the railing, where as soon as a few seconds passed, a few small blue-breasted birds began to arrive to eat the little feast.

"I thought I heard you say you didn't want them to make a mess.”

"Yes, well, a little food doesn't hurt anybody.”

They went down to the sorcerer's studio, where smoking cups of tea were served, at a perfect temperature thanks to the eternal fire that warmed the room. Harry, for his part, brought little cakes on a tray.

"They look spectacular, Harry. But I think it's been too much for one night, at least for me.”

"All right, you don't need to eat. Sometimes I do them for people who come, although today they were much more interested in what is being talked about at the center than in the potions they needed so urgently.”

"So, you also heard what's being talked about us, have you?

"A gentleman, Parks, the shoemaker, wondered if I knew anything about you, as they had only seen you go out at night until today.”

"And I appreciate you keeping my vampiric side anonymous, of course," Harry gave him a curious look, to which Zayn laughs. “When the man you were attending came out of here, he looked at me smiling and wished me a good date with you, if he'd known I was a vampire, he'd have spit in my face.”

"Your spice is not much appreciated, are you?”

"Ah, not many know that we can survive from a stinking potion.”

"Well, not all vampires can have a sorcerer as good and cute as me.”

"Of course.”

The night passed with gentle laugh on the part of both; Harry performing mindless jokes, to which Zayn laughed discreetly behind his silk glove. All the weight of the world dissolved from the sorcerer's shoulders every time he looked at the spectral eyes of his companion while playing with his fingertips, barely giving small frictions.

When the hands of the clock pointed at eleven, Zayn gave a strong sigh before getting up and going through the basket that lay in the kitchen.

"Harry, I brought you a gift.”

"Oh, you shouldn't have.”

"Maybe, but I think this would serve you much more than me, and I really don't know how well or bad you can take this, I just brought it in the hope of...”

"Oh, shhh, just give it to me.”

Zayn laughed again before pulling three books out of the basket, one green with runes written on the front on which rested a line that stood out in golden letters _"Study of ancient runes",_ a golden one where it was read in black letters _"Basic Magic: Introduction to Potions and Enchantments",_ and finally a purple cover with blue letters _"The Art of Transfiguration"._

Harry embraces the books with all the strength he possessed in his body before he took the vampire's hand.

"Zayn, this is much more than anyone ever did for me.”

The vampire played with the sorcerer's fingers for a while before kissing his back, to which Harry's cheeks turned as red as cherries.

"Rest Harry; you must sleep, and I need to go home and leave this.”

"Will you call me?”

"Of course.”

Zayn left a sweet kiss on Harry's cheek, causing his heart to stir and have the biggest smile he would ever have felt.

Over the next few days, Zayn sought to visit Harry at least twice a week, always in the day and bringing him various plants that he noticed were not in his studio; always leaving promising caresses on his hands, which Niall used to assure him was good news even though what Harry wanted the most was a kiss, no matter if it was in his cheek or his lips.

For three consecutive Saturdays they went to the park to have a picnic prepared by the brunette, in which, coincidentally, Niall was involved; always making his friends laugh and even earning one other suspicious look of the Yorkers, as the most recent and juicy news was about the young sorcerer and the vampire, who always seemed to be on everyone's lips. Rumors ran quickly in the village, so Mrs. Pomegarden, in her usual aesthetic requests, asked him if he felt anything for the attractive young man with whom Harry used to be seen in various places, because all she heard was that from time to time they would hold hands, and Zayn would never take off those infernal gloves even if the moisture in the environment was unbearable; then Harry thought it was an advantage that the man he was sharing his time with did not sweat, nor had apparent feeling of cold or heat, but he was sure that he hated that he was so old, always so typical of giving him the place to the right, opening the door and kissing his hand every time he said goodbye.

"You shouldn't be so mad at him," Niall once told him. “He was born a long time ago, is accustomed to other things, and outside how he grew up, the rest of his time spent him surrounded by vampires; so believe me when I tell you that Zayn don't know how to behave when someone likes him; although on second thought, I think his last partner was about 100 years ago or so, and they never got married, so... Well, that detracts from his experience in certain respects” the spectrum spoke slowly, recalling things from little too little. “So, don't push him, he'll tell you when he's ready for the next step.”

Harry had behaved for several more weeks, until Zayn reappeared with food and gloved hands that wouldn't let him feel his skin. Then he burst, not in front of the vampire, of course, but with Mrs. Pomegarden, who was the closest thing he had to a maternal figure, since on that occasion she had invited him to tea, and Harry told her all his worries, always omitting essential aspects, such as that his supposed partner was a _no-dead._.

"Well, honey, you can't expect someone over 200 to adapt to modern customs; If I were you, I wouldn't wait for him to take me out to dance foxtrot at the rose festival next December.”

"He's not 200 years old, next year he'll be...” Harry tried to set an age to the beautiful face in his mind; he was 28 himself, so he must think an age that people didn't run any more rumors than existing ones “he'll be 29, in January...”

"Harry, little darling, don't take me for an old decrepit; I know very well that your boyfriend is older than you say, and he's not exactly the reporter or teacher he claims to be, but I think it’s a loving gesture you want to avoid mentioning his age” he took a sip of his mug. “But you have to know, that little boy, Javadd, is over 200 years old.”

Harry was silent, not knowing how to proceed with that information; Zayn didn't seem to care about his vampiric status, but he didn't know if he'd feel good or confident with him if he revealed, what he meant for the moment, his biggest secret. Clair laughs loudly before touching his hand affectionately.

"Don't worry, baby, this old lady won't tell anyone that your beloved is an old vampire... But you did know, didn't you? Oh Gods, I hope I didn't ruin anything for you. Javadd remains very attractive and is extremely respectful” Mrs. Pomegarden looked really upset.

"No, no, Clair, I did know... I mean, I do know, but how do you know?”

"Oh well, the first clue was your sudden interest in that spell book, after that I remembered young Javadd, and, believe it or not, this old woman was young once, and I had very big romances and interests towards vampires, and you know how they are, always wanting to record everything; I suppose that's because they have eternal life and they must have something entertained” Harry clear his voice to return Clair to the conversation. “Sure, sure; umnh, I have a book around here with the "births" of vampires and a little of their information” the old woman needed nothing more than stretching her arm to take a great, heavily worn leather book and find the page she were looking for. “Here it is, Zayn Javadd Malik.”

She passes the book to Harry, right on the page where Zayn's portrait was seen with frightened look and much simpler clothes than he used to wear when he was going to see him. It had old lyrics where one person could read "Zain Javadd Malik, born January 12, 1690; turned into a vampire in 1717"; there was more information, but Harry stopped there; seemed to be meddled in his partner's life, which he could not bear.

"Take the book when we're done, honey, and if you want, you can read it, otherwise, well, you'll have something else to add to your collection.”

Harry kept the book in the backpack he always carried with him, but for the rest of the evening with the old lady he couldn't stop thinking about the vampire, and that, despite not being specific with his age, Zayn had shared the fact that he was a slave, and that was a great secret, so he felt confident not to read.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for reading the story, and I'm sorry if there are too many errors :(


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for any misspellings or mistakes

The routine remained the same, barely the difference that Zayn, one morning after being with him for three months, had decided to invite him to his house; that little corner in a town surrounded by white roses; the vampire offered him food, drinks, books to read from science fiction and romance. Harry helped him in the gardening, telling those silly jokes that the brunette seemed to appreciate so much, but, at the end of the night, when Zayn went to leave him at home, Harry got nothing but a kiss on the back of his hand and the promise that they would spend the next morning in the park.

But, instead of the promise, the vampire appeared with a bouquet of white roses in his right hand, while his left hand carried what looked like a box covered with a white cloth, very early in the morning.

"Zayn, good morning.”

"Harry, I have to travel to Edinburgh, I need to go back for... certain things I leave there. I hope you understand that I have to go.”

"Okay... don't you even have a _good morning?_ ”

The vampire sighed heavily before holding the sorcerer's hand to guide him to the small table, where he kept stroking the hand.

He said nothing for a long time, except when Niall arrived unexpectedly for Harry to do the cameo spell; so the curly boy began to work with a robe over his pajamas and his hair made a mess inside a ponytail.

"Harry, are you angry?”

Niall had decided to break the silence, to which Harry turned around to look at the vampire, who shrugged in place before taking all the courage he seemed to possess to get up and take the sorcerer's hands.

"I have to travel to Edinburgh; my train leaves in two hours” he smiled sadly before walking away once more. “I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, but I got a telegram at night, I thought it would be unwise to wake you in the middle of the nothing just for it.”

"Is it a serious thing to travel for?”

"I hope not, but the journey lasts two days, or so it was the last time I went there; I hope I don't stay for more than two weeks.”

"All right, just be careful and send me letters or telegrams or call when you're there, okay?”

"Of course, I couldn't leave you without saying anything.”

They both smiled affectionately, and although Harry expected a kiss from the vampire, the seemed unscrewed for that step, so the sorcerer settled for taking his silk-covered hand.

"And what's in the box, Zainie?" Niall, who was now paler, raised the box on the floor to place it on the table.

"Oh, yes, it's a gift, Harry, and I hope you like it.”

"I like everything you do...”

"Well, I didn't do this.”

Harry lifts the delicate white cloth, revealing a cage of fine bars with a black cat asleep inside. The cat was made into a little ball on a fluffy purple lace cushion.

Zayn opened the door with great stealth so that he could caress the cat, which flickered lazily, exposing a pair of blue eyes. When he came out of the box he stretched completely before watching closely all the men in the room.

"Harry, this is Louis; Louis, this is Harry.”

The sorcerer made a small pout before letting go of air and rushing to caress the delicate feline; however, he stopped short when the cat spoke.

"So you're the sorcerer, huh?”

"Zayn, your cat spoke," the feline roars before turning around. “And it's rude...”

"And you are a fool” the cat frowned before turning completely to Harry; moving his tail furiously.

"Zayn?”

"Harry," the vampire seemed extremely entertaining. “He's a forest spirit.”

"Ok...", it looked like the cat wanted to win a staring competition.

The cat and sorcerer looked at each other for a long time before Harry decided to reach his hand again so that he could caress the feline. Louis, for his part, kept looking at him, to what he seemed to want to melt into the area of his body that was near Harry’s hand.

It was just a gentle caress before the cat bit his hand. Zayn intervened immediately, driving Harry away.

"Louis! Don't do that, it's very rude” the cat lying completely on the table, totally unworried. “Harry, isn't there a book about forest spirits you want to read?”

The sorcerer looked at him thoughtfully before retreating to his room while still seeing the cat in the eye. Niall, meanwhile, entertained himself by playing with all the herbs around him until Louis rubbed in his legs.

A high-pitched cry of emotion erupted on the top floor before Harry ran down to bump into the vampire to hug him very hard and scream.

"A familiar? A familiar! Zayn!”

Each scream was higher, but before Zayn could answer, Harry took his face to plant a long love-filled kiss that shocked the vampire. As soon as Harry took off from the brunet’s lips, the vampire's perplexed gaze penetrated his soul, making his cheeks feel warm, hotter than ever, so Harry turn his energy to another object, one on the table, a candle, and as soon as he stopped feeling warm on his cheeks, the wick ignited until the sorcerer set a flame that touched the ceiling an instant and then burned on the table.

They all moved quickly to put out the fire between water, rags that ended up charred, and some other objects that ended up on the ground, completely shattered.

"Aw, my table..."Harry saw with pity all the things that had been lost in the little instant before being flipped by the vampire.

"Harry! You just conjured fire!”

"I don't summon... conjure nothing... I just felt hot and embarrassed, so I focused on something else than you...”

"Oh, Harry.”

Zayn lovingly, very carefully, kissed him on the lips, so gently that it seemed that Harry was being touched by the silk of the gloves and not the darker's lips. They did not deepen the kiss as a new flame sizzled, on that occasion being the eternal fire that burned on their workbench.

"I think you should stop kissing before Harry set the whole house on fire” Louis talked as he got back on the table, trying to throw at least one thing in his way.

"I agree with the cat," Niall was pointing at the artboard. “Until Harry learns to control the whole... fire business, you should stop kissing.”

Zayn stepped away 

from the sorcerer before kissing his hand, which brought the little half-melted candle back on.

"It's all right; I hope you liked your gifts, Harry, and I hope Louis agrees to be your familiar. But now, I have to go, I still need to pack a couple of things, and then go to the train station.”

"All right, take good care of yourself, okay? And remember to send me telegrams, and letters, and please don't forget to call.”

The vampire said goodbye one last time before leaving completely, leaving the sorcerer slit down on his desk, and perhaps he didn't realize it, but Niall seemed more solid without the cameo. Harry finish the spell of the spirit so that he can place it inside the vest; it seemed that his friend had a date with Miss Johansen, and promised to tell the sorcerer everything in great detail before saying goodbye.

Over the next few hours, Harry attended to various people, always telling them to beware of his new cat, Louis, who had been a gift from the vampire, so that his clients began to let go of sighs, and some girls looked at him with love before wanting to touch the little creature without any success, as the cat seemed less willing to let someone touch him, always pawning, bristling the hair from his back and growling, all until Louis managed to keep everyone away, until, at night, he scratched his pawns on the leg of the curly boy without mercy, obviously trying to get his attention so that he would stop seeing young Anna, who went for her father's flaming powders. When the girl left, Louis soon got back on the table and started talking.

"I don't like that girl.”

"She's very nice, you should give her a chance, and she leaves us a lemon cake," Harry put the box with a ribbon on the table.

"No, she brought _you_ a lemon cake.”

"Well, that doesn't mean I can't share you.”

Harry went to the kitchen in search of a dish to put water, and in a smaller one some milk; placing both in front of the feline, opened the box to reveal the beautiful cupcake. He split it in half, leaving the biggest piece for Louis, who looked at him suspiciously before started eating.

At some point while Louis was entertained drinking milk, Harry managed to bring him closer to his chest so that he could caress him properly, even he could kiss him between his ears before the cat scratched his cheek.

"Well, it's obvious that being caring isn't something that gets along with you very well, so why don't you tell me a little about yourself? Maybe that way we can speed up the whole familiar thing.”

"I'm a forest spirit, what else do you need to know?”

"I don't know..." Harry stretch his hand discreetly to caress the cat, but the blue eyes saw him before he reached him “How did Zayn convince you to come?”

"He said there was a sorcerer, and I should come and meet him, who might be my soul mate," the cat turned his whole little body to locating the sandwiches for the customers. “He said you were a powerful person and convinced me to go with him and let me lock myself in a cage.”

"I don't think I'm your soul mate; I like Zayn.”

"The soul mates work differently for witches and their familiar, you fool," Louis spoke between every bite. “You can be half of your familiar when the two parts accept to protect each other forever.”

"Would you protect me forever?” Louis lifted his tail and ears staring hard at him.

Louis got off the table, leaving a trail of crumbs where he was walking; he took a couple of turns around the studio, followed the kitchen, and stopped in front of the stairs, waiting for Harry's indication that he could go up. The two walked slowly to the sorcerer's room, where the blue-eyed cat looked at everything carefully as he sighed; climbed into bed with a leap to look at everything that could have been lost from below. He probes the fluffy pillows one by one, look out the window and try to catch one of those curious blue-breasted birds before returning with the curly boy.

"All right, I can be your familiar. I will protect you forever, as long as you take care of me.” Harry recalls in his mind the words he was supposed to say.

"Of course, I will take care of you, and I will protect you with my life until the day I die.”

A hoop-shaped light surrounded them, shining brightly until it became a thread that joined them heart to heart.

Harry lost his breath for a second before joining again and seeing a young boy on his bed, completely naked, showing each of his bones under his thin skin along with some bruises that varied in color depending on the area where they were.

“Uhmm...”

"You should give me clothes, I can't transform from cat to human if I have to and be naked out there; humans are very fussy and moral about nudity.”

"Louis?”

"Who were you waiting for? The Queen?” the boy, Louis, crossed his arms.

"Yeah, okay, I'll bring you clothes.”

The sorcerer offered him clothes from when he was younger when he wore a little more color, and although the boy was small as soon as he was fully clothed, Louis transformed back into a little black cat.

"Now can I carry you?”

Louis shook his tail cautiously, but said nothing when Harry held him in his arms to caress and kiss him, he even purred a few seconds before broking free to go to the table by the window to finish the sweet snacks that remained there.

When the night fell completely, Harry tries to leave the cat the softer and fluffier pillow, so he could sleep comfortably next to him.

Harry bought most of the things his new familiar needed on the next few days upon his arrival; a huge fluffy cushion to sleep in the studio, three ceramic plates adorned with the names "water", "food" and "milk", and, because Louis refused to be fed _with vulgar cat food,_ the curly sorcerer was forced to buy the usual food in twice the amount to be able to offer Louis of the same food he received, although sometimes the food was little, as Niall visited them regularly and without warning, to which Louis seemed to enchant, always in the lap of the chestnut spirit, letting himself caress by pale hands and purring under the aroma of herbs.

Louis accompanied him everywhere; when he traveled the cat was comfortably lying in the basket of his bicycle, when he went to the park he would sit next to him for a while and then go prowling around, and even transformed into that handsome boy-who with the passing of days had gained a little weight, was no longer just bones and skin- to attend to some of the customers when he needed a break; even some York girls would ask Harry about the boy when they saw him walking around. Louis helped when Harry had to practice transfiguration of objects; He scratched orbit his hands every time he forgot the meaning of a rune and spoiled the manuscripts he had to translate.

When the little black cat served 15 days as his familiar, the day he was planning to go into the woods to practice enchantments, Louis woke Harry up with a small paw over his right eye and licked one side of his face.

"There’s a letter, it smells like Zayn. The postman just left it at the door. And I am hungry; I've been awake for hours, and you're still snoring.”

"A letter you said?” Harry bravely opened his eyes.

"Yes, but first you should seek the welfare of your familiar; we have a special bond if I die you die...”

"It's all right, I’m getting up.” Louis put his cold nose in the neck of the sorcerer. “Gods, I’m going.”

As soon as Harry put a hand out of the selves, the sorcerer charged Louis to scratch him behind his ears as they went down the stairs with parsimony.

In the small mailbox of the door rested a half crooked envelope, of yellowish paper that smelled of the old book. The lyrics were neat and stylized, with a red wax seal.

"June 17, 1922

Dear Harry, I'm sorry I kept you waiting so long to give you any signs of life, but my presence seemed to be a little urgent and my time was immediately required.

I want more than anything to apologize to you and I want you to know that you are repeatedly within my thoughts, there is nothing that I yearn more in this world than to be by your side; your warm touch and soft lips.

The reason for my trip must remain anonymous, and anyone sensible should know that nothing should be left in writing. I will have to spend more days than planned in Edinburgh, nothing serious or that should cause you any alarm, it has only complicated the reason for my stay. To appease your thoughts, I can tell you that this is an old friend, and, out of sheer caution, I haven't told them about you with much detail, not because I don't want to, but to keep you safe from anything.

Please write to me at the address in the letter, a telegram or a letter, whatever you want, but tell me how you did with Louis, what happened to Niall and tell me about you, have you practiced with the books I gave you? Does Mrs. Pomegarden still invite you to tea?

Zayn."

The sorcerer folded the letter again and hidden it inside his mother's vampire book.

"Louis, do you feel like going to the woods now?”

"Not particularly, no. But I guess that won't make you change your mind about it"

It took them half a morning to get to the point Harry wanted to be, but as soon as they were there, he started unpacking things from the huge travel bag he was carrying with him. A large candle, a couple of books, and a blanket; made a circle of stones so if the fire were out of control, it would not come to burn the nearest trees.

"Louis, do you think I should put more stones?”

"I think you should do burn ointment, not try to summon fire, but they're fine.”

Harry focused all his energy on the sail for long times; felt warmth in his cheeks and tried to it him to the fuse with little success; then he began to think of Zayn, his beard, black hair, in those bright spectral eyes, and the fire rose in a blue flare. It was several hours after that the fire was at his will and no product of Harry’s lust.

When he began practicing the invocation of water, the word _"aquaaqua_ _fons"_ was carving into his brain until the little cat made himself a ball in his lap, shaking furiously.

"The other spirits in the forest don't like fire, Harry, you should summon the water now so we can leave. Make the spirits calm down.”

"I don't know how to calm them down...”

"Summon the water, summon the water.”

Louis looked everywhere, nervous; Harry, for his part, felt a gust of air that made the cat jump. The sorcerer summons a circle of blue fire around him without it being his intention before a huge creature appeared in front of them. Harry took a stone to be able to pronounce with all his might _"aqua_ _fons";_ a small jet of crystal clear water turn off the fire in an instant. The huge presence of black eyes was turned away with a whisper.

_"No fire.”_

Louis grumpily hisses before hiding in Harry's arms; the little cat was shaking and seemed to be sobbing if the cats could.

Ending his practice, Harry collected all his objects, choosing to write the letter for Zayn when he returned home, the gods of men knew he had put enough stress on Louis for a day to risk altering him again.

Upon arriving home, he gave Louis cookies, rolls, and warm milk, to which the little cat cheerfully accepts, always staying close to him.

"Lou, I'm sorry I put you in danger, I didn't mean to. I wanted to practice with fire, and I didn't read the warning about spirits who don't like magic fire” the cat stopped eating to curl up in his lap. “If there are dangers of that magnitude, you should tell me, the least I want is to put you in danger. You're my familiar, and I adore you very much to do that to you" he kissed the soft blackhead.

"I'm not a good familiar, Harry, I should have been the one defending you from the spirit of the trees, and it didn't occur to me.”

"All right, Lou, we'll learn how to do this together.”

After kissing him several times, Harry let the cat go to write the letter.

"June 20, 1922

I'm glad to know you're okay, and I'm sorry you can't come back sooner, I miss your company.

Louis agreed to be my familiar, but I think we're both learning the necessary things with form walk, you know what kind of spirit he is? Because today afternoon practice the invocation of fire in the forest and a spirit of the trees drove us away by telling us not to practice that there. I like his company, he is constant and eats everything I prepare, because he refused to eat, and I quote, _"vulgar cat food when I rejoice like a king”,_ so, now he eats at the table with me. Sometimes he transforms into a human: a tiny boy who does not appear more than 17 years; I wanted to ask him his age, but my hand still doesn't heal from the last time I ask him if he'd like to date any of them that ask about him, because he's very attractive.

Niall has dated Miss Johansen, but I think she only plays with him, so I've started to study divination, I have an old manuscript about it that I was able to translate with the help of runes, to help him, but I have not achieved any crystal sphere. Being the only sorcerer in all of York is difficult.

I've practiced a lot with the books you've given me, and I still can't help being grateful for it, I don't think I'll ever be able to show you all they mean to me, and let alone Louis, not only did you give me someone who shares my soul, but you've given me a companion, a good one.

I wish you were here with me; the other day at the market, Mari, the girl who sells slats and fabrics, brought a delicate black lace that would look beautiful in one of your gloves; I think I could buy some for when you get back.

Write to me as soon as you get the letter, please.

Love, Harry."

He put the letter in an envelope adorned with drawings of flowers before going to the post office to drop it off.

Three more days passed before the vampire's response reached his hands. By that time, Harry believed to completely dominate the invocation of fire, because it only needed to concentrate on something for blue flames to live, however, the invocation of water required an object from which the liquid could emanate, and it should not be any object, it had to be one that belonged to the water in such a way that it could give that object, so a small part of his work table was occupied by river stones that wept small drops; they were ideal for obtaining the pure water for his potions.

Louis strolled in the studio while Harry watched the vampire's telegram; on his left side rested a pair of cotton gloves that the sorcerer, miserably, had tried to add the lace to it. There were grumps and an unattractive grey color adorned them.

"I don't think you should send him this, they're very ugly” Louis play with a glove until his claws got tangled up in the threads. “In one of your _home spells_ books was something to knit; maybe you should erase something prohibit.”

The book's spell turned out to be one to mend clothes, knit, and embroider, so Harry cut a couple of pieces of black leather to make the needle and thread move at full speed.

"JUNE 23, 1922

DEAR HARRY I RETURN TOMORROW NIGHT STOP I HAVE BROUGHT GIFTS FOR LUOIS NIALL AND FOR YOU STOP MY TRAIN ARRIVES AT YORK AT 2100 HOURS STO; P "

Harry jumped into his spot a couple of times before taking Louis and spinning him all over the room.

"Zayn's coming back tomorrow, Lou, tomorrow. And he brings you a gift; he didn't tell me what, but it's probably a very nice thing” the cat tried to scratch his face, but Harry was faster.

"All right, insane, now put me down.”

Harry let the cat go so he can see the progress of the gloves; Unlike the previous ones, those looked stylized and the perfect size for the vampire's thin hands, so the sorcerer decided to get rid of the lace, which had not really been a good idea, and instead put small pieces of metal left to fasten the fabric at waist height.

For the rest of the day he blogs off all his clients, making them write the spells they required before telling them that he would not be available the next day after four o'clock in the afternoon, so they had to pick up their potions before that time or they would have nothing.

Thanks to Zayn's books, Harry had increased his skills for several days, so the people of York benefited from his experiments, from _weed-clear liquids to sleeping drops,_ which were the ones that became quickly popular, however, he still had regular orders from regular customers; hair powders for Mrs. Pomegarden, while sweet Anna Baxton had asked for powders to brighten her reddish hair, which would make her look more beautiful, and ointments for the pain of her father's hands; in return, she had left Harry a box full of pastry of many flavors, in addition to a delicate kiss on his cheek, to which Louis ended up scratching and growling the little redhead until he managed to scare her away.

"I don't like her.”

"Louis, she doesn't do anything wrong, she just wants to help his father.”

"She wants to be with you. And something feels off.”

The cat did not argue beyond it, as he went to lie down to his cushion as he watched Harry work, spell after spell, until he fell into the night and left all the orders on the small table by the window; all perfectly labeled with the name and cost of his magic.

The next morning, Niall arrived with a basket full of ingredients so Harry could cook potatoes with butter, striped fish, pudding and chocolate cake, exotic herbal tea, and so on. His Wraith friend saw him fascinated by every new thing he did until it was all over around two o'clock in the afternoon. While cooking, Harry could listen to Louis, in his human form, arguing with a couple of clients because a young woman seemed to want to touch him, which, somehow, ended up with pudding all over Louis. 

"You'll have to bathe” Harry walked carefully toward the cat, trying to corner him against the wall.

"I don't need it, I can lick myself, look," and, as he licks, the sorcerer took advantage to grab him.

Harry bathed Louis with warm water, or what the cat considered better once he stopped fighting and trying to break free, with smelly flower petals that left the perfume impregnated in his fur, as well as brushing it, after several more complaints, until the black fur was fluffy. Time flew until eight o'clock when everyone decided to leave for the station to receive the vampire.

The moment when the train was heard in the distance, Harry smiled non-stop; when he was in sight he held Niall's wrist tightly; by the time Zayn was within reach of his eyes, he left his two companions behind to go hug him.

"Harry," the vampire breathed right over his hair, at ear height.

He felt Zayn's thin arms on his hip as he tried to use every part of his body so as not to let him go; his aroma was intoxicating, to tangerine and mint with a humming-smelling smell.

"I've missed you so much” the vampire took Harry’s face to see him in the eyes.

"I've only been gone for a couple of days, not a whole life”

“It felt like a lot longer” Harry tried to kiss him, but Zayn lovingly walked away to end up kissing him on the cheek.

"Not here, Harry, not here.”

Designated Harry takes his partner's bags with his friend's help while Louis wandered between everyone's feet, with the clear intention of having someone carry him.

They dined on the floor by the window, the little cat accepting food offers every time they offered them, including shots of wine that the vampire had brought from his trip, though he did not exactly depart from Edinburgh. Zayn brought Niall a couple of photographs that made him cry, which he did not want to talk about anymore before he became very intoxicated; for Louis he had a blue-painted leather necklace with a ribbon above, which he had flatly rejected until the spectrum put it on, as at that moment he remained completely still, purring under his hands. Harry, for his part, was destined for a full suitcase, full of sorcery books.

“ ‘The complete volume of spirits in the world’, 'Arithmancy’ ‘Advanced Potions’ ‘Transfiguration of Living Beings’ ‘Global Location Spells’, ‘The Great Wizards of History and the Most Remarkable Witches’, ‘Magic Beasts’, ‘Magic Creatures and the Human Treaty’, ‘Conjuring and Invocation’, ‘Rituals of Classic Magic’, ‘Herbology of the New World’, ‘Sacred Geometry’, ‘Divination: What They Need to Know from Astronomy to The Leaves’... Zayn, here's so much, and it looks so new, how?”

"It’s just a fool... a silly gesture, Harry. But the gift, the real one, is this.”

Zayn spread a white box that Harry uncover quickly; inside was a black silk shirt with yellow threads that formed discreet dots on the sleeves. Beneath it was a layer of thick wool painted dark blue, almost pinking the black.

"Zayn, I... this is unbelievable...” the sorcerer gives the vampire a soft kiss on the cheek.

"I thought it was a good idea to include a little color in your wardrobe, just like in your room. It's so beautiful painted yellow” Louis jumps into the lap of the curly sorcerer to make a notice.

"Harry's got a gift for you, too, don't you Harry?”

The sorcerer jumps out of place to go for the box with the gloves; he looks closely at the vampire so that he could see every reaction he had, getting his joy when Zayn smiled with his whole body; Zayn doesn't wait for a second to take off the ones he was wearing to put on the new ones, not without first thanking Harry for the gesture.

And, despite speculation that perhaps his hands were peculiar, they were but a very common pair; brunette, thin, and long.

Before the new gloves could be fitted, Harry touched them, very afraid, as he did not know how the vampire would react; the sorcerer only hears Zayn sigh before intertwined his fingers.

"Well, love birds, I'd better go, before the night is over swallowing what's left of light” the specter spoke awkwardly because of alcohol.

"Niall, you should stay. The extra room upstairs is unoccupied and ready to welcome someone.”

"Ugh, Harry, I couldn't, it's your home and...”

"Yes, and you are welcome; you should sleep up there, not walk to, wherever you go when you're not here.”

"I live in the woods, I sleep naked on the undergrowth, and in the morning I walk through York, sorcerer, that's what I do," Harry stares at the spirit. “Okay, no, I don't do that, but if you start giving me an inn, I may never get out of here again.”

Niall stumbled to the stairs from his place to go to the promised room, being closely followed by Louis, who moved his tail with parsimony. Harry resigned himself that his cat would not sleep with him that night.

"I think I should go too, Harry," Zayn already had his gloves on when he started getting up. “It's getting late and I don't want to abuse your hospitality.”

"Don't go...” Harry could feel the alcohol go through his veins, just as he could see that the vampire had not been affected by all the wine they drank. “Don't go. There's still tea and, and there's a pudding over... somewhere...”

"Harry, I don't want to... I don't want to be a nuisance, and you don't have any extra rooms were I can sleep.”

"You could sleep with me," Harry’s voice was just a whisper; felt his warm cheeks and a spectral gaze over his head.

"Harry, no. You and me, we can't sleep together.”

Harry felt miserable sitting on the floor on a tablecloth; his eyes were clouding and he had a slight feeling of nausea that did not go out of his mouth, but when he looked up, towards Zayn, he felt completely desolate.

"Why don't you want to kiss me more? Did you find a vampire in Edinburgh much more attractive than me?” Tears were beginning to fall “or perhaps a very beautiful vampire girl? All vampire books say they're beautiful.”

"Harry, no, I didn't find anyone else, what makes you think that?” The brunette was kneeling beside him, holding his face and drying away the tears he shed.

"You've barely touched me today, and I understanding the whole thing that you're old and raised with other ideas and so much more stupid things, but... when you were away I miss your romantic gestures and now you're barely able to look at me.”

Zayn flips everywhere; got up to close the windows and leave the dirty plates over the sink so that he could return for Harry, who was in the same position as he had left him. He takes him by the elbows to help him get up, to guide him to his room and put him in his bed. 

The sorcerer hugged him tightly on his stomach and then jumped on the bed so that he could be at his height so that it would not be uncomfortable to kiss him. Zayn laughed before returning the kiss with euphoria; gently hugging him to his body, but when the sorcerer began to take off his shirt, Zayn stopped him.

"No... Harry...”

"I don't want to do anything, I just want to take off my clothes.”

The sorcerer's stomach stood out from the rest of his body, and it was just an instant that he was exposed before putting on his pajamas. The process for the trousers was the same, except that the vampire sought to turn his gaze. Harry kissed him again and dragged him to his bed, so that he was lying next to him, hugging him and laughing at every gentle caress provided. The vampire managed to remove his gloves to feel Harry's skin; after that, Zayn could not take off the cold hands under the soft cotton shirt.

"Why do you always wear gloves?” The kisses were leisurely and clumsy, without any haste.

"I don't know, why do you want to know? " the mocking tone wins him a punch in his chest." When I was in India, English knights used to wear gloves whenever they went hunting...”

"What were they hunting?

“Tigers, or at least most of the time; sometimes they captured monkeys or some other exotic animals” Harry opened his eyes.

"Poor tigers, did they kill them all, or were they captured too?”

"Well, they didn't kill everyone, but that's not what you asked me.”

"Oh, yes, that's fine, continue” a kiss on the chin “please.”

"Most vampires at that time were English knights, so it became fashionable to wear gloves; after a while it became customary, and the only time you take them off is when you feel completely welcome somewhere, whether surrounded by vampires or not. It's like a fancy lunch where you can't wear a hat even though the sun shines blindly.”

Harry was pensive for a moment before kissing him again and trying to take the shirt off the vampire, who stopped him by holding his hands.

"Harry, no.”

"Why not?” Harry knew he was using the most deplorable cards in the game, but he felt unashamed, “you don’t want me?”

"Of course, I want you, I missed you....”

"Then you don't desire me? Holding hands in the street always seems to cost you so much work” the sorcerer collapsed on his side of the bed. “Needless to say, a simple kiss.”

Harry hears the vampire sighing heavily; hadn't realized until that moment that he was wearing only the inner shirt of the suit. Zayn took him in his arms so he could lie on his chest.

"Of course, I desire you; I would have to be blind not to, and even then...”

"And why don't you take me?”

"It is not appropriate for someone who is not married; you could fall into disgrace and...”

"I don't care about that.”

"Harry, your business depends on your public appearance, and whether people start talking about...”

"Everyone in York knows we're dating," Harry moves a little away to look the vampire in the eye.

"You're drunk, we can talk about this in the morning.”

Zayn brought him back to his chest so he could stroke his hair and spread kisses on his forehead. Before Harry stood it out, he was already snoring. 


	4. The Death That Surrounds Us

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a cheesy chapter to end a cheesy story uwu

"You're drunk, we can talk about this in the morning.”

Zayn brought him back to his chest so he could stroke the sorcerer's hair and spread kisses on his forehead. Before Harry could protest something out, he was already snoring.

By the time Harry opened his eyes was under the bright sun straight to his face. After blinking the sleep out he found Zayn on the balcony table; the vampire had a cup of tea in one hand with which seems to be the disgusting potion, while in the other he held a green book. As Harry approached, he realized it was just a science fiction book. He sat next to Zayn abruptly, to which the vampire responded with a beautiful smile before serving him a cup of actual tea and give him some bacon he had reserved in a corner.

Zayn looked stunning under the rays of the new day.

"Good morning, did you sleep well?” Zayn smile with every syllable.

"My head hurts," the sorcerer took the hot liquid in small sips.

"Yesterday you drink so much, it’s not surprising," Zayn paused a little before smiling at Harry. “You move a lot when you sleep, complain within every move, and it was a little hard for me to get up today. You had me well secured in your arms.”

Harry made a small pout before dropping his head on the table. Some way he feels bad about all the things Zayn said, and watching him see from below wasn’t helping because the vampire kissed his forehead and began to caress his hair.

"Are you still mad at me?" the vampire stop stroking him.

"No... but I'd like to know why it took you almost four months to kiss me, and now it seems like you'll never want to be intimate with me...” Harry takes the vampire's bare hand to squeeze it in a way that Zayn would keep stroking him “like you don’t desire me at all.”

"The last time I had sex with someone, the whole village found out, rumors spread and were twisted in such a way that the poor girl ended up taking her own life. Then there was a boy who... ugh, never mind...” the vampire frowned deeply, and breathed irregularly. Harry managed to keep quiet for a few moments before speaking again.

"I thought you'd never been with anyone before. Niall told me...” the vampire laughs sarcastically.

"You shouldn't believe him, he's a ghost, and ghosts tend to forget things the longer they are in this world.”

"Then you're not a virgin?”

"No, Harry, I'm not. It's hard to contain primary desires for so long when you're my age. You should understand that.”

"Well, I don't understand” Harry took Zayn's hand away and sat straightly; the vampire looked at him curiously.

"You mean you've never been with anyone else? Not even a girl?”

"For the way, you seem to take care of my reputation, I thought you'd know the answer to that.”

"But it's different to be with a man, it’s more... you know, and all those York girls who...”

"Which girls?”

"Well, the red-headed girl, Anna, who always sees you with lamb eyes, and the girls who work with them... they all seem to be so, so willing to... to do anything to be with you.”

"Well no, I never... it is well known that sorcerers can only be with other sorcerers or witches, even bee with creatures that are, therefore, like us, like Niall or elves or I do not know, magic creatures that can perpetuate the legacy.”

Harry didn't see him at the time, as he was focused on his cup, but the vampire looked at him so hard that Zayn had to look away for fear that the sorcerer would feel intimidated.

At that moment Harry feels like the most naive person in the world. Just because the mother-one that left him behind- told him he was supposed to continue the magic legacy. And even, the people of York would have been with him in that way?

"And you want to be with me?” Harry looked at Zayn right in the eye. “I mean, do you want us to have sex? Even knowing I’m a monster?”

The sorcerer looked at him with his eyes full of anguish before nodding. 

“You’re not a monster, Zayn. No to me.” Harry contain his breath while the vampire crackled a smile. “I love you.”

“You are so good to me, Harry, I’m afraid I don’t deserve you.”

Harry approaches the face of his lover, moving slowly so he can kiss him. Slow, caressing the dark hair and putting as much love as he can into the kiss.

Zayn lured him to his body to kiss him fully, so Harry would sit on his lap and the vampire could put his hands on the sorcerer’s ass, shyly stroking it, making it move back and forth in such a delightful way Harry couldn’t help the little moans.

"Promise me you won't regret this," Zayn spoke awkwardly among the caresses of the sorcerer. “Promise me that it will not matter what people say, you won’t walk away from me.”

“Never.”

The vampire lifted him so he could take Harry into the bed, leaving him on the sheets with great delicacy, sloppily kissing the jaw because the sorcerer couldn’t help the giggles.

“Enjoying yourself Harry?” the vampire being to undone the buttons of the black shirt.

“I’m just excited... nervous... don’t know...”

“It will be good. I’ll be good to you.”

Zayn marks his way down with kisses in every inch of Harry’s nudity that the clothes left before starting to get naked himself. The sorcerer's warm hands traveled from the chest of the vampire to the pelvis, where he stopped to play with the pubic hair below the bellybutton.

To Harry, the caramel skin looked like the haven itself, one with many scars in every inch.

"You have a lot of wounds," Harry spoke slowly, with his voice full of desire.

"I've been in a lot of fights," Zayn takes the sorcerer's hand to place it above his belly button, where a huge scar was. “This was from when I was transformed.” He moved the hand to his hips “these are from when I was a slave.”

Harry looked at him in detail, embracing everything he could, from the big, ugly scar above his bellybutton, to his penis filling up with blood, shining in the head. He touches all the skin he might in an attempt to remember the beautiful body of his lover.

"I have four nipples.” Harry finds himself splitting out.

"I've noticed. You also have nice skin.”

Harry wanted to talk more, make the moment something more durable, but Zayn star to put kisses in his chest, going down to his crotch, licking it, and then opening the sorcerer's legs so he could kiss the beautiful inner thighs, so warm and pale. The vampire bites a little overweight here and there, making the sorcerer lose his mind, more when Zayn fixes his eyes in the pink button cover in some hair. Harry’s hand pulled the black hair in an attempt to put the strange thing out of him, but Zayn uses his inhuman strange to keep him in place while he eats Harry away.

When everything became blurred with pleasure, Zayn put a finger inside of Harry, watching as the red penis of the sorcerer seemed to get harder by every minute. After the pain and surprise left Harry’s body, the vampire adds more and more fingers till the pleasure was the only remain.

Making love with Zayn didn't last forever as Harry planned, but when they finished, the vampire hugged him very tightly, kissing his sweaty forehead and trying to cover his nudity with stained sheets.

"We should go down. I heard Niall in the kitchen talking about us a minute ago.” Zayn kisses Harry on the shoulder.

"Were you listening to Niall while we were making love?”

"I can hear a lot of things," Zayn kisses his lips, "but I assure you, all my attention was on you, in those cute moans and the way you whisper my name.”

Harry was grateful to have candles in his room, as he was able to concentrate all the heat of his face on them, all without ending up burning the whole room.

By the time they were downstairs, Niall had finished having breakfast and Louis was in his lap eating leftovers from what looked like scrambled eggs and toast.

"We thought it would take you all morning” Niall smiled at them as he spoke “you seem very happy. But for all the noises from a minute ago, it doesn’t surprise me.”

"I hope you change the sheets, Harry; I don't plan on sleeping in that dirty bed with all your... _fluids_.”

The sorcerer laughed loudly before carrying the cat and starting to kiss him all over his face. This time Louis didn’t try to attack him.

After they had had sex for the first time, Harry's desire remained huge, which the vampire did not refuse to give him all the pleasure in the world as long as they were in any of their homes, in privacy, since Zayn continued to seek the good image of the sorcerer, but Harry was fine with it because Zayn kisses him more often, no afraid of touching or caressing him in all the opportunities they had.

As time passes, the more love Harry feels for Zayn; for his brown-caramel skin color, his spectral eyes, his kisses, the way he talks, the mannerism of his wandering hands, the stories and so much more. The sorcerer procured to have pastries and the feeding potion that the vampire needed.

Some nights the brunette helped Harry with exercises of basic geometry for sorcerers, helped him by reading the steps of new potions, and encouraged him to experiment and annotate every simple thing when doing so since Zayn always said that repetitiveness and reproducibility were the key factors for any sauced in a sorcerer path.

While reading the books about spirits and invocation, Harry discovered that Louis was a spirit of flowers, for that was where his appearance came so young even though he was older than Harry for al least a decade, but when Harry asked what kind of flowers he has been born of, Louis frowned and went to lock himself in the main room; the crying could be heard in all the house, but Harry let him be for a while before using an enchantment to open the door. The handsome 

blue-eyed boy was lying face down when he walked in; Louis looked at him for a few seconds before confessing that he was a low-status spirit, that he was the protective spirit of the white roses in Zayn's house. 

“I’m just no worth it...”

The beautiful boy cries while Harry hugs him and sits him on his lap, kissing the chestnut hair to reassure him so that Harry could convince the spirit that he wasn’t a fraud, that there was nothing in the world that he could love more than Louis.

Louis seemed to calm down after a few hours in which the sorcerer devoted all his attention, affection, and patience to him, however, to stop being so scrambled in his head, had to pass a few days until Louis go back to his old self, complaining about almost anything unless there was Niall, because even if he did not admit it out loud, that little black cat especially enjoyed Niall's company.

Luckily, as Louis spent time in his pet role, their relationship had improved markedly, as Harry could barely remember the last time Louis had bitten or scratched him, and, as a 'wizard's assistant' he had become an expert; sometimes Louis only delivered the orders already placed, but, on certain occasions, while Harry entertained himself in anything else—or his room with the vampire—the young boy would do the spells for him and serve his customers since Louis carried magic in him.

Niall, for his part, had told Harry that the photographs that the vampire had given him as a gift were from when he was still alive and had just moved to Edinburgh from Ireland, but, for some reason, he had found his true home in York -short before his dead-. Was then when the sorcerer had offered him asylum at his home, to which the cat was very interested, but the specter had kindly declined him, for at that time he frequented a lot with Miss Johansen and did not wish to inconvenience anyone.

Zayn had got himself a part-time job as a professor of Literature and History at School of York, where Harry would visit him from time to time to bring him breakfasts, which were various foods hiding the disgusting potion, but the vampire seemed to enjoy greatly; perhaps because of his visit or because he was too polite to put a bad face on his affectionate gesture, or Zayn simply liked the direction their relationship was on. By that point, the people of the city seemed to have lost all interest in their relationship or gossip about the new settler, because now they were the teacher and the sorcerer who had a relationship.

The weeks passed, each with the breakthrough of the year until the snow began to fall and did not stop when at the end of October the inhabitants of the city crowded near the church, where a poster was stuck: a 16-year-old girl had suddenly disappeared. Harry managed to remember the girl's name, Lucy, by some days a woman had gone to his studio to ask for a locator spell, but the clues were so vague and reluctant that the sorcerer had to tell her that with the resources she had at the moment Harry would find it impossible to catch the girl, so at the time he felt very guilty.

Two weeks later, during the 9 a.m. news, the sorcerer had heard the man on the radio say that the weather conditions would not be favorable for people to leave their houses, as the snow seemed not to want to stop until it buried them all, and, for a few moments, Harry thought to call Zayn so the vampire could stay at his home during the weather, for despite his apparent immunity to the horrible weather, the vampire seemed more melancholic on the cold and Harry wishes nothing more than separated his lover for that terrible feeling. However, he gave up his plan before he even tried to carry it out because the brunette always refused the request to stay to sleep regardless of the circumstances, and it was then that Harry began to notice the changes.

The vampire used to ask him to prepare the filthy potion every two to three weeks, which Harry considered to be very little, but since Zayn returned from Edinburgh he had only done the potion once, and no matter how much Harry argued with him, Zayn kept saying he still had plenty of “artificial blood”. The concern increased in the sorcerer when he noticed the sudden paleness of the brunette and his constant tiredness, so much that, during one of his afternoons together, while kissing, Zayn had asked him to stop because he felt very tired.

When November was halfway through his path, several posters began to appear in the church as did requests for seeker spells, which Harry repeated function again and again, but no matter how many he did, the faces of the missing people continued to fill the walls of the holy place and he seemed unable to afford it, so much so that he had to hire Niall as his assistant while requiring Louis' help to keep going with the requests. Zayn stopped attending school to teach his classes, which he had soon learned to appreciate; he didn't answer his calls and when Harry knocked on his door, no one answered. The beautiful vampire seemed to have been swallowed by the same land.

However, the night Anna showed up at his door, cover in blood and trembling, was when the little bubble Harry kept living in broke completely. The little redhead wept when she was in his arms, spoke insanely about how she had found his father, lifeless, by the chimney, so pale because much of his blood was scattered throughout the living room stinking of dead. And just like that, Harry got Anna living at his and with the constant visits of York cops to ask questions.

By the time Zayn decided to make his appearance, Anna already needed constant potions to calm her nerves and sleep. The vampire entered Harry’s home without uttering any words; took off his gloves and began to observe all the inhabitants of the home, trembling.

"I need...” he begun.

"Zayn, stop it, what the hell is wrong with you? You disappear for days, weeks, and the first thing you do is scrutinize my studio like a vulgar thief.” Zayn seemed to pay no attention to the sorcerer, instead, he seeks in his materials and books “Zayn! Stop! I’m talking to you. And you’re no welcome to touch my things anymore”

Zayn was shaking when he put his hand over his mouth, like Harry’s words had burned the vampire’s skin. He looked everywhere with a lot of fear. The moment Niall approached to see what was going on, the vampire turned so sharply that he fell suddenly to the floor, hitting his head so bad that he wouldn't get up again.

Harry lifted him with difficulty so he leaves Zayn on a chair; he looked pale, thin as if it was aging at the age of 200 that he was.

"We should put him in your room before more people arrive and wonder why we have Professor Javadd here,” Niall suggests. 

The moment Zayn was laid on the bed, with a blanket over the cold body, Harry thought that they had no a non-living person under his roof, but rather a well-preserved corpse that breathed very occasionally. Harry didn't move off the vampire side for any reason, no matter how much the hustle and bustle of his small studio was startled when Louis jumped on his lap to keep him company for a while.

The day fell and the night rose, all without Zayn seeming to suffer the slightest change.

"Maybe you should feed him," the little cat suggested as he approached the brunette. “You haven't done that filthy potion in a long time.”

"But I don't have any more feeding potion, and I certainly don't have a dead star to prepare it...”

Louis was over the vampire's body, thoughtfully, wagging his tail back and forth in a hypnotic way. Harry was tempted 

to keep his hand away from his partner's hair to appease his familiar.

"You can give him some of your blood. I read that they need nothing more than a drop to survive for a few days. That's why he asked you for the potion so space, isn't it?” Louis walked over Zayn’s chest with delicacy until he sits right in the chest, poking the nose of the vampire with his tail.

"Maybe, I don't know.”

"Just give him a few drops. We can’t lose anything and you will breathe normally at least.”

"What if he has a frenzy?”

“Then you should keep some silver close, just in case.”

The cat caught up with a silver chain that he hadn't worn in a long time, and he put it on Zayn’s neck very carefully; not only did Harry fear that his partner would turn into a frenzy, but he was terrified of being able to hurt him, more at the time that he seemed so vulnerable. Louis, oblivious to his thoughts, bite his index finger very hard, emitting a blush of blood drops that Harry carried to Zayn's lips; for a moment nothing seemed to happen, only the constant drip that Harry hoped was nourishing the vampire until he felt the sip from his finger, then Zayn opened those brown eyes of spectral brightness, which reflected a lot of fear, even more, when he noticed what was going on and abruptly turned his head away.

"Zayn, are you all right?” The vampire breathed deeply; he seemed angry.

"How long have I been asleep?”

"I don't know, a couple of hours at most...” Harry touches the pale skin afraid of his lover.

Zayn looked at him intently, observing every small move Harry made without moving a single muscle, he didn't even seem to be able to blink, and then Harry noticed, the vampire was in that hunter state the books described.

Harry walked away from Zayn, a few steps back, trying to serve as a shield for the little cat hiding behind his legs.

"You're scaring us, Zayn.” Harry whisper.

The vampire seemed to realize what he was doing because he blinks countless times before walking away, to the balcony, and back to take the sorcerer's face.

"Did I hurt you?” Harry denied "why did I 

drink your blood? It was a stupid and dangerous thing to do, Harry.” Now consternation adorned the factions of the vampire.

"Stupid and dangerous that you stopped eating, what the hell were you thinking? A week ago Anna came here because she found her father bleeding out in her house and you still didn't show up, no more so I wanted to avoid thinking about it, the whole blood thing, I couldn't get out of my head that maybe you...”

"No, no, no! of course, I didn't...”

"And what was I supposed to think? You disappeared for weeks, you didn't ask me to do the feeding potion and you seemed very distracted by something so I couldn’t help but think...”

Harry had no time to keep talking, for loud noises, very constant, were heard on the ground floor. Both remained silent, as the noise ceased, at least for an instant, before countless pieces of glass were heard breaking. Zayn held Harry very tightly to prevent him from coming down; seemed to be smelling the whole house, and something frightened him, then the vampire ran down, banging on the walls; it seemed that the blood he had drunk was not enough for him to stand or regain his normal strength. On the stairs, trying to stay very close to the vampire in case Harry had to hold him.

The scene in the studio seemed abnormal, the smell of blood filled the whole room, not to mention the powerful smell of the jars on the ground and Niall lying on one side, with many cuts, very small scattered throughout the body. At the foot of the stairs, Anna was lied covered in blood, barely breathing, looking at the ceiling with desolation. Zayn's back was extremely tense in the face of that smell and spectacle, but he seemed to become stone when a very thick voice rumbled in the room. 

"Hello, Zainie” the vampire turn slowly to face the new person in the room “the girl is still alive if you fancy a bite.” The voice sounds so thick and rich that Harry had a hard time resisting going in the direction of the source.

“Ives...”

The alluded smiled with his mouth full of blood before stamping Zayn’s head against the wall; Harry saw his partner fall to the ground as if it were a sack of flour, then it was Louis, who, in an attempt to defend him (because his legs did not seem to answer) flew out to the other side of the room with a pitiful meow, and he could only see the blood in the intruder's hand.

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you.”

The intruder didn't even give Harry time to come back to his senses or watch his attacker in detail, as a pair of very strong arms held his neck until Harr completely lost his breath and passed out.

When he opened his eyes again, it was still night because the only light in the room was a candle that poorly illuminated the atmosphere; the smell of blood had increased, as had the smell of rot coming from everywhere. To his right was Niall, tied completely with a gag over his mouth; he was still bleeding but the cuts were too thin for him to worry about bleeding out to die. Mr. Hughes, his neighbor, stood at his feet, breathing as if he were underwater, and, to his left was Zayn, trembling, tied with thick ropes, and over them thin silver chains that seemed to be burning his lover’s skin, while, on the side, near his hip, was a wooden stake from which a thick, blackish liquid appeared to come out of Zayn.

"Don't worry about him" a voice comes from behind. “He's very used to, let’s ay, that kind of treat.”

Zayn seemed to be crying, but no sound was emitted from his lips.

From the shadows came a huge man, who seemed to measure at least two meters, and every inch was full of twisted muscles, all equated with a beauty that rose the grotesque: blond hair like gold, dark blue eyes, almost blacks, with pink lips and flushed cheeks; it was so beautiful that Harry could barely take his eyes off him. When that man instinctively walked away the sorcerer wanted to follow him, but he was stopped by the ropes that tied him to one of his chairs; a divine laugh was heard all over the place.

"It's hard, isn't it? Avoid wanting to follow me, do what I ask... She couldn't help but follow my orders while I draining her father, and she's an excellent actress, I think she could be in the London theatre without any problems. Without her living here, I would never have been able to get in.”

The man smiled as he spoke and looked at Anna, who was bleeding at Zayn's feet.

"What did you do to them? "Harry tried to close his eyes, but cold hands made him open them. Everything hurt.

"Not much, just, you know, tie them, I drank some blood, I left them alive so they don't spoil, and if I want a snack in a while, well, I take it.”

The huge vampire wandered around the place while watching Harry; He would take things and leave them elsewhere. And, even if the sorcerer had a hard time concentrating, he could see how everyone around him suffered, but gout spilled the glass when that creature of grotesque beauty buried the stake in Zayn more deeply.

"Don't touch him... don't touch anyone” that seemed to make the intruder laugh.

"I just told you, silly head, don't worry about him; when we were at the Raj this little rat could hold much longer and so much worst” the blondie man laughed between his teeth. “I still remember when we used to torture him, for fun; those were good times. That's where he learned not to cry like the waste he is.”

That grotesque blond man walked gently on the wood, his footsteps made no sound. He was just walking around and looking at Harry with those bright eyes.

"Who are you?”

"My apologies. I’m Ives Balan, at least for a couple of centuries ago, I don't remember before.”

"What do you want?” Harry tried to move, he was trying to concentrate on some part of his body that didn't hurt, but wherever he looked, there was someone's body or blood and that wasn’t helping.

"You see, I'm looking for something I haven't been able to achieve in four centuries” Harry hastily turned to Zayn's hand, where it was still resting the ring in the shape of a rose. “That is not, I won't even bother to look at the ring; no, it’s something, a little more, sophisticated to achieve.”

"You could have asked for it kindly; not killing half of York, not breaking in my home...”

"Oh, but I asked him kindly” Ives pointed to Zayn, approaching to his thin body to painfully turning the stake “but he told me that the sorcerer everybody was talking about so much in York was nothing more than a mediocre attempt than a children's party jester; all while burning Vladimir's lifeless body, that damn old man," Zayn pressed his eyes hard, dropping a lot of tears. “But the rat kept repeating that you only did cheap magic for women to paint their hair, and I thought it was worth a look; never trust someone who looks like him, I told everyone, but the damned old vampires love him.

>And ah, what a pleasant surprise I took when I followed the rat and discovered that all the women in York had extravagantly colored hair thanks to you; and not those mediocre colors that are seen with a tincture, no, it was fire red, bright green; beautiful living colors. That's not the job of someone mediocre, don’t let this waste of meat tell you otherwise. But I have to confess” Ives smile half-sided so that his face was illuminated like a sun, hurting Harry’s eyes “I lost my breath when I saw that you had brought a dead man back to life.” The beautiful vampire whisper.

"I don't do necromancy... that's black magic, I don't... I've never done...” the blond vampire lays his claws over Harry’s mouth.

"What about him?”

Ives points to Niall, who was still unconscious; then he pulls the cameo out of Niall's vest to break it into a thousand pieces between his fingers. The vampire made a wedge with the tip of his pale fingers and attacked his friend's leg, waking him up instantly, drowning out the scream behind the gag. When the vampire shook his hand, a stream of blood spread all over the ground.

"He's got a perfect body. One that pumps blood and breathes fresh air; who can walk in daylight and eat the countless things that humans prepare day by day. So you, darling sorcerer, are the one a need.”

"Why me? There are more magic people in the world, more powerful and wiser... I’m not powerful or...”

Ives gloated in his place at that question. Pushing Zayn's body so it falls to the floor and he could sit the chair. He got very close to Harry, so much so that he felt the breath of the vampire upon his face; and his cold, cold hands on his face.

"The wizards, sorcerers, and witches are dying out; their stupid orthodox rules forbid them from mating with someone other than their kind, so the magic in the world is dying, giving its last breath. But you, beautiful sorcerer, in you, magic blooms like roses in spring. You survived making that solar ring for Zayn, and you're not moribund like many others who did it before. Your vital energy is enough to cover the whole sea; but you waste everything on that rat” Ives point to the brunette, suddenly losing all his manners and politeness. “You're making him human and he does nothing but complains; he should be serving you. With me you could be much more; in exchange for your services, I'd offer you everything you asked.”

The blonde waited for an answer, but, failing to get it, he tears the sorcerer's ties, breathing out a “fine" throwing Louis to his lap, who at that point was nothing but an unconscious lump of black fur; Ives takes Harry by the hair and drags him to his room, knocking him on the bed in a painful blow, followed by a book at his feet.

Harry could do nothing but protectively hug the little black cat in his arms.

"For every hour you don't perform the spell, someone down there will lose more than blood.” And all the beauty in the vampire transformed into a horrible ugliness that is associate with cruelty. Harry never had have so much fear in his life.

Ives left the room slumping, and Harry could hear Zayn's cry, so deafening that he had to cover his ears; he didn't even want to imagine what that horrible vampire would be doing to his beloved brunette.

As soon as there was silence, Harry crawled 

out of bed to look among his books; there was one of healing that he read quickly; the basis of healing was just to do that concentrate his energy on someone's wound to help them, so Harry put his hands on the little black cat lying on the bed and began to pray to the different gods he knew; they could not let his familiar die, he loved Louis madly, and he was sure that the little black cat felt the same way about him. His hands shone in a pearly tone flickering until the blue eyes opened.

"Harry..." the cat stood up and quickly scrubbed his body in the sorcerer's sore abdomen.

"Oh Lou," Harry embraces him vehemently despite the pain they both must be feeling, “I’m so sorry about what happened to you. I didn’t protect you the way I was supposed to.”

"It’s alright, Harry, I'm better now, look," Louis showed him one side of his body, but Harry only saw the delicate black hair.

"Yes, you're much, much better.” Harry wanted nothing more than hug Louis and never let him go.

"Yes, but we need to help others.”

"The vampire said I should do this spell," Harry lifted the book that barely had two pages, the rest of the leaves appeared to have been torn off. “Or so I think, he just threw it and went downstairs. I believe he wants to kill everyone if don’t do his command.”

Louis took the book with his mouth and carefully read the spell that came described; his little paw pointed to the part that said the ingredients "the soul of a dead back that had been back to life".

"He needs Niall, so he hasn't killed him yet.” The sorcerer was suddenly very nervous.

"Harry, I need you to focus, look at me," the cat scratched his chest so he knew he was serious. “You don't know who this insane is, only that he wants a very powerful kind of potion, or spell or whatever, and that will probably kill you, and he'll kill everyone else or worse...”

"His name is Ives Balan... he said he was looking for someone to do this for many centuries. Oh my Gods, how many people have just died...”

"Do you still have Mrs. Pomegarden's book?”

Harry nodded fast, and moved faster than he ever had in his life; he looks for that vampire book, going through the first few pages until he sees the grotesquely beautiful face.

_ "Ives Ainslie Balan Black; 938 A.D. in what is now known as London. Transformed into a vampire in 905 A.D. Grotesque beauty; speed and strength over the vampiric average.  _

_ During the Raj in India, he was removed from his goods by the Great Council due to his habits of torture and mutilation with his prey that led humans to carry out The Human-Creature Treaty that led to the misfortune and almost extinction of the species. In 1802 he lost what was left of humanity and with it developed immunity to everything against which we are attacked. His appearance makes humans want to follow his commands.” _

By the time Harry looked up to let Louis know what he had discovered, he found the blonde's angry look. Ives holds him by the hair, taking the book out of his hands, and hit him repeatedly against the wall, all without releasing the little cat. When the vampire's little tantrum was over, he drops the cat, fixes his hair and suit, and finally took the sorcerer to see the damage.

"You've done your little research, now it's your turn to do my spell. Walk.”

Harry could barely stand, but that seemed to matter very little to the vampire, as he did not avoid every fall he had, but lifted him with one hand so that he could push him downstairs, to the trembling body of his spirit friend.

"It's showtime, sorcerer.”

The beautiful man denatures the bonds that held Niall to the chair, but not those that prevented him from moving, and left him at Harry's feet; walked in what was left of his studio to take the ingredients that the spell surely quoted. Ives look at him expectantly, so the young sorcerer placed a pair of candles around his friend's body; but the herbs on his body, and, before lighting the wicks, turned to the vampire.

"I need Zayn.” Everything in Harry’s body hurt; he feels like his head was going to fall at any point. 

"What?”

"This spell will probably kill me, and I don't want to die, I need someone else's life to offer it in exchange for mine.”

"And you'll sacrifice the rat?” Ives laughed cheerfully. “You heard, little scum, your life will finally work for something” Ives carry the brunette as if he weighed less than a feather, and threw him to Harry’s side. “I think he's still alive, I don't know...”

The blonde put his dirty shoe on Zayn's beautiful face, which did not move, did not seem to breathe, and certainly from his body no longer emanated that black-green liquid. Harry held back tears, his heart hurt the most, and as he looks at Niall, who seemed to plead with his eyes with something he feared to say with his mouth in the presence of Ives, Harry feels furious.

Harry breathed deeply three times, and one more to reassure his galloping heart; he looks Niall directly into his eyes before thinking again and again "fly like a bird and live as such; fly like a bird and live as such" until his friend was left as a small yellow bird, which flew to the other side of the room to hide. Ives, when he realized what had happened, moved quickly until he was stopped by Louis, who jumped straight to his face to inflict as much damage as possible before flying out, but that had given the sorcerer enough time to think of fire, what that horrific vampire full of fire would look like covered in fire, and before he stood it out, the blonde beauty screamed in pain as he burned in beautiful blue flames.

Harry keep concentrating on the fire until that vampire was laid on the ground without making any movement. Then Harry turns to see Zayn, who did not move; he quickly put his hands on his lover’s body, thought of healing him, and prayed to the Gods, to the spirits, to everything he could through, that they might be pious to the man he loved, but the pearly light did not appear, he felt tired and full of black liquid for hugging the brunette; had flaming eyes through tears.

"Damn it, Zayn, you can't do this to me," Harry hit the unmoving body, concentrating on transmitting all its energy to it. “You have to live, you can't die. You can't be dead, you have to live... Live, live for me; if you love me live, don't be dead. Gods dam you if you left me...”

He kept repeating those words during what seemed years, but when he felt Niall's hand, who was human again, on his shoulder, he gave up, leaving himself completely in tears.

"You have to help others...” Niall whisper with sadness.

Harry looked around, to Anna and Mr. Hughes, who was still breathing and seemed to be in great pain.

Harry watched as his friend took Zayn upstairs, then hears Louis called him to heal the two people in his home. Before they could finish healing their neighbor, a bunch of uniformed men and Mrs. Pomegarden, with the Count, entered his living room making a whole parade out of it. Niall, conveniently, came down just in time to explain that the vampire was unconscious, more undead, for the burns began to heal; those men took large iron shackles and silver chains to tie Ives up and take him away, while two other men were left behind, observing the healing work he performed, until Anna and Mr. Hughes managed to stand up in such a way that they answered the questions the officials had for them.

Harry walked heavily to his room, being followed by one of the men who had been left behind, who was followed by Niall, Louis, Mrs. Pomegarden, and the Count. They all stopped at the doorstep, watching Zayn breathe, remaining and with difficulty, but breathing. Harry turned to see his friend with emotion, which Niall matched with a huge ear-to-ear smile, while the little black cat was going to snuggle up next to the vampire's body.

"Mr. Javadd has to come with us.”

"No," Harry doesn't even bother to look at the man, he just walk to his bed so he can sit down.

"He is a key witness and we fear that he might be a vampire, as he disappeared from school the same time the disappearances began," Ms. Pomegarden seemed to see the deathlessness in the sorcerer, so she intervened.

"Bullshit, he was kidnapped by the vampire; Professor Javadd was but one of his victims. Look at his neck, the rest of his body, he’s been drained almost all his blood and had been tortured by that sadistic vampire. He needs to rest.”

The official watched Zayn in detail before nodding and walking away. Before leaving, Mrs. Pomegarden wink an eye out on Harry, who, as soon as they all left, snuggled up against the warm body next to him, completely exhausted from the events: pained by the blows they had bestowed upon him, and certainly tired in his soul for having healed so many people.

When he awoke, daylight appeared on his balcony with mower rays, and the light only entered that angle when the afternoon made its way, so he assumed it would be more than 4 o'clock. When he tried to get up, his whole body hurt, he was full of bruises, from his feet to his shoulders; he felt exasperated and about to scream, but Louis, in his human form, entered the room with an apron on.

"How well, you awoke; I thought you'd sleep for days” Louis sat on his lap to hug him fondly, so Harry couldn't help but stick him to his body. “Niall and I are picking up the disaster below; you just have to throw away the garbage bags, but otherwise we've cleaned up almost everything.”

Louis left him a soft kiss on the cheek before getting up with the promise of bringing some food to bed as soon as Niall could cook something.

When Harry lay back on the bed, he could not help but smile when he saw Zayn by his side, breathing slowly, even more so when he began to blink and Harry could see beautiful hazel eyes.

"Harry... Ives; he, he was looking for you, he wants you, he wants a spell to...” Zayn began to panic. 

"Shh, shh, quiet. Now he's locked up, they took him away, the police took Ives away. It’s all right, we're all fine.”

"But the missing...

"They'll find them, or their bodies.”

Zayn closed his eyes again, which Harry took advantage of to kiss him.

"I'm hungry," Zayn opened his eyes and was surprised to hear his stomach roar.

"Take...”

Harry raised his wrist at the height of Zayn's mouth, but he did nothing but a gesture of annoyance before turning his arm away.

"That's not... I want, I want eggs with bacon; and tea, I want mint tea. I want lemon pie and the cookies you always make for your customers, Harry...” Zayn opened his eyes wide-ranging “Harry, I'm hungry.”

"All right, give me a couple of hours to make the potion and you can go with it with some of that food.”

"No, Harry, you don't understand, I'm hungry. Real hunger, not the need for blood. I am hungry... food hungry.”

Zayn stands suddenly, instantly regretting if the face he made was any indicator, but was smiling and kissing the sorcerer, who kissed him awkwardly. Harry carry his hands to the neck of the brunette so that he could improve the kiss, turning away suddenly when he felt movement in the vein running around the neck.

"You have a pulse...”

"Do I have a pulse? But how?”

Harry opened his eyes wide before looking him in the eye; his whole body ached indescribably, but his heart leaped with happiness when he kissed his partner again.

"Ives, he killed you... I starve you, you bleed until you had nothing and then I healed you; I said you couldn't die, that you shouldn't be dead, that if you loved me you should live.”

"Harry... how extraordinary you are” the brunette began to shed tears. “My extraordinary Harry.”

So when the police came back to the sorcerer's home again, to take evidence that Professor Javadd was not a vampire, they both rejoiced when the doctor charged, would take his pulse, and tell him that because of the inconvenience his heart was beating much more strongly than he should have a heart of a 29-year-old. Mrs. Pomegarden, having learned of that, smiled angelically, wishing them both a happy life, not before ordering their usual batch of colorful powders 

and inviting them both to tea.

It had to be a couple of weeks before Harry's potion and spell business could reopen, as he had a lot of expenses to bear with, but, to his good luck, Zayn had decided to accept his invitation to live with him, so that much of the expenses were absorbed by the brunette; Niall, for his part, had decided to embark on a journey around the world as he was not long a ghost and therefore was not tied to any place, nor anyone, but before he had to save money, much, so he decided to stay in the extra room that Harry always offered him so that he could remain as the sorcerer's assistant. Louis had loved that idea, so he barely showed up in Harry’s room for the nights, as he had better company.

After a few months, they learned that Ives was still alive, but the Great Vampiric Council had taken him prisoner and he had been given the death sentence for bringing his species such a disgrace. Around the same time, Zayn had received a letter that left him thought throughout the breakfast.

"Are you planning on telling me what's going on? "Harry asked the brunette, who looks at him wearily “or do I have to wait for you to disappear for a month and a manic vampire comes to want to kill us all?” Zayn remained thoughtful for an instant before sighing and looking at everyone around him.

"When I traveled to Edinburgh it was for the funeral of a vampire, Vladimir, he was the one who converted me after seeing how Ives torture me in the Raj; he died of old age, he was the oldest vampire of all, almost two thousand years old. He, he had a lot of appreciation for me, I don't know why, but he did. I get a letter from the council, they are aware of everything, everything that has happened, and they are willing to get me out of the guild, but Vladimir, he, well, he left me an inheritance.”

"What kind of inheritance? "Niall asks excitedly.

"Money, a lot, a lot of money; some properties and plantations...”

"Oh by the gods," Niall held the little black cat against his chest, “Did you hear that, Loui? Zainie is immensely rich.”

"I don't think I accept the inheritance, it's too much and I never did anything to...”

Niall stopped him at that very moment by covering his mouth and pointing to Harry, who looked at him with a small smile on his lips.

"Harry?” Niall looks at the sorcerer with expectation. 

"Maybe we could have a wedding” Harry takes Zayn's hands, hands wearing gloves. “We could take some of that money for a wedding perhaps... Our wedding.”

"You want to marry me?” Zayn seemed completely incredulous.

"Well, we both have common human lives, and it's very little time, no more than 80 or 90 years at tops. I think it would be nice to have someone in that time... You know, get marry and have a baby or two...”

Zayn smiled evenly at him before kissing him with all the love in the world; Harry knew he would never get tired of all that, even when the brunette was locked in his head and didn't talk for days, or if he still had a hard time kissing him in public, Harry was happy to be by his side.

Niall broke the little bubble of love in which the sorcerer stood.

"And after the wedding, we can travel to America, or Asia, to Lisbon and Madagascar; I have read enough books of all those wonderful lands that I could be your guide, right Loui Lou?

Harry couldn't help but laugh when his friend kissed his Familiar’s little black nose mockingly, and as Louis seemed to strain for several seconds before throwing a paw at Niall.

Everything was fine.

The end


End file.
